The Hidden Addiction: Prescription Drugs

Thanksgiving: Enjoy the Sparkle of the Snow
by Darla Isackson

I have a 94-year-old friend who is very dear to me. She called one evening after she received a piece of my writing--an essay I thought would comfort her in her afflictions. Much to my surprise, she sensed the emotional pain I had been feeling when I wrote it, and she was concerned about me. She thinks I have always been a bit too serious about life and said, “Oh my dear Darla, you can just enjoy the sparkle of the snow--you don’t have to shovel it!” She opened my heart to a very important inquiry. I think I have spent too much of my life shoveling the snow instead enjoying its sparkle. I’m only now learning to relax into what is, to see the wisdom and truth in thanking the Lord in all things.

I have much more to be grateful for than I sometimes realize. Too often I don’t remember to give thought to all the things in my life that I could enjoy and appreciate. Preoccupied with failed expectations I can easily allow my mind to focus on the gap between how things are and how I want them to be. The more I focus on that, the bigger the gap seems. My thoughts are apt to stray every moment into the negative unless I guide them firmly into brighter paths. When I choose to pray, surrender my thoughts to God and His loving mercy, count my blessings and remember the Lord’s great goodness in my life, gratitude comes flooding back.

The Healing Power of Gratitude

A younger friend of mine lost her father recently. He was her hero, and she fell into depression. Several months after his death I was walking with her beside a lake as the sun was coming up. The sky was painted with light and the air was fresh with promise. She told me about her discovery that gratitude was the key to overcoming her depression. One morning in the shower she began to sing, “Count your many blessings; name them one by one.” As her tears flowed with the warm and cleansing water, she thought of all she still had, and the paralyzing grief began to be washed from her heart.

Kahlil Gibran in his book The Prophet said, “Gratitude is in itself a wholesome and healing force and it becomes all the more real when we make it a regular part of our prayers.

“You pray in your distress and in your need: would that you might pray also in the fulness of your joy.”

Prayers of Joy

What a lovely idea--to pray in joy! Every prayer of gratitude is a prayer of joy. As I learn to see the world and my stay on this planet with fresh eyes, with eyes that enjoy the sparkle, I find many reasons for contentment and gratitude. My prayers become more joyful.

As I observe with a grateful heart the commonplace things happening in each new day, even the commonplace begins to sparkle. I can cultivate the art of really noticing with an acute awareness my surroundings, the precious people in my life, and the ongoing drama of mortality.

The noted scientist Huxley said: “For every man, the world is as fresh as it was the first day, and as full of untold novelties for him who has the eyes to see them”

The other day my grandson and I were enjoying the Indian summer sun in my back yard after I gave him a haircut. He picked up a tuft of hair and threw it to the wind. I was standing at such an angle that the sun turned the tiny pieces of hair into a shower of light and this precious child’s head into a crown of gold. Breathless with wonder at the sight, I remembered the scripture “But even the very hairs of your head are all numbered.” (Luke 12:7) I was overwhelmed with the feeling of being loved, and of loving. A commonplace moment brought me to a prayer of pure joy.

The Choice Is Mine

I find it in my heart to pray that God will make me receptive, aware, and full of thanksgiving each moment--continue to restore my capacity for wonder. I discovered a major key to accomplishing this state of mind: when I find myself bogged down with negative thoughts, I must deliberately turn away from them, choose to replace them with thoughts of faith and love and gratitude. The choice is more simple than it seems, and in many ways my life is black or white depending on that choice. In every second of my life I either choose to live in fear and doubt or in faith and love.

If I focus my thoughts on all that sparkles in my life, the sparkle will increase day by day and crowd out the self-pity and resentment over what I lack and what brings me pain. I will find myself more and more adept at using God’s help to manage my life in order and serenity.

The philosopher Epictetus said, “What you have may seem small; you desire so much more. See children thrusting their hands into a narrow-necked jar, striving to pull out the sweets. If they fill the hand, they cannot pull it out and then they fall to tears. When they let go a few, they can draw out the rest. You, too, let your desire go; covet not too much . . .”

Gratitude: the Fountain of Motivation

Another amazing dimension of gratitude is motivation. When Ed Pinegar was a first-time mission president, he struggled, prayed, and pondered to know how to motivate his missionaries. The Spirit taught him that gratitude is the fountain of action. In the case of his missionaries, the ones who felt heart-deep gratitude for the atonement and all the blessings of the gospel could not be restrained from sharing it. The others could not keep their motivation level up.

Oh, how clear it becomes that the most precious things in our lives are as naught if we do not value them, recognize their importance, and thank the Lord for them. Even the simplest things can become reasons for thanksgiving and can motivate righteous actions when we are in the mind set of thanksgiving.

I remember when I returned from living overseas where hot water was a luxury, determining that I would never get into a hot shower without giving thanks. Every bite of good food, every piece of comfortable clothing, every strain of beautiful music, every beautiful thing in nature or in our homes, every ray of sunshine in our lives can become reason for thanks--and can give motivation for sharing our abundance in service.

How unimportant our creature comforts are, however, in comparison with the gospel and the people we love. What a joy it is to contemplate the graciousness of God in granting us family, friends, temple ordinances, and his own grace, mercy, and forgiveness. There is no end to the list of blessings given us by our great and loving God. Whenever we recognize them, we are fired with the faith that moves us to actively living a life of love and service to all those around us.

All Is Well

I don’t need to shovel the snow of my past, but enjoy the sparkle of the present--I don’t need to ruminate on disappointments or worry about what I don’t have, but can rejoice in what I have been given, the marvel of the good things I have experienced.

When I focus on the good, what I do have, what I can do, what the Lord has given me--I know that all is well, all is in God’s hands. In 2 Corinthians 4:15 we read, “For all things are for your sakes, that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many redound to the glory of God.” The world is not purposeless chaos, but fulfilling of prophecy leading every closer to the bright Millennial morning. I am in the light whenever I choose to turn from thoughts of despair to thoughts of gratitude, thoughts of Christ.

Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, summed it up beautifully: “Those who will receive the Lord Jesus Christ as the source of their salvation will always lie down in green pastures, no matter how barren and bleak the winter has been. And the waters of their refreshment will always be still waters, no matter how turbulent the storms of life. In walking His path of righteousness, our souls will be forever restored, and though that path may for us, as it did for Him lead through the very valley of the shadow of death, yet we will fear no evil . . . Our cup runneth over with His kindness, and our tears runneth over with joy. We weep to know that such goodness and mercy shall follow us all the days of our life, and that we will, if we desire it, dwell in the house of the Lord forever.” (Ensign, Nov. 1997, 4)

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Note: For those who missed Darla’s tapes when they were available in LDS bookstores, Rosehaven is re-releasing them. Meridian readers may order “The Juggling Act” and “Peace of Mind” for just $5.95 apiece by calling Rosehaven’s toll-free number: 1-888-790-7040 or going to their web page: www.rosehavenpublishing.com. Rosehaven is also distributing Darla’s booklet co-authored with Emma Lou Thayne To Be a Mother: The Agonies and the Ecstasies.

Note* Darla will be hosting Writer’s retreats beginning in January. For more information e-mail Janet Bernice at: janet_scots@yahoo.com or darla2@xmission.com

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