Dr. Roy E Howard
November 26, 2015
SERMONCITOS Grateful for Life Experiences The economic crash of 2008 took the money that patrons of the arts might have used to support the Gallup Performing Arts Center that I owned. That year we lost our health, jobs, business, and home. We came to Kansas so our children would take care of us, but our lack of obligations made us available, and within 18 months we were in Ecuador as Temple missionaries. I am grateful for the afflictions and difficulties that freed us and Dr. Roy E Howard made possible a new level of service. Thanksgiving Proclamations: http://www.pilgrimhallmuseum.org/ thanksgiving_proclamations.htm
The 1863 Thanksgiving Proclamation by Abraham Lincoln, the first in the unbroken string of annual presidential Thanksgiving proclamations, is regarded as the true beginning of the national Thanksgiving holiday.
Giving thanks for small things helps us live with gratitude in our hearts. We are grateful that the Kansas wind organizes our leaves into little piles beside the garbage can. Thinking of the homes of our South American friends makes us grateful for luxuries we don’t need like hot water showers and reliable electricity, and even daily internet.
"To make ourselves happy is incorporated in the great design of man's existence. I have learned not to fret myself about that which I cannot help. If I can do good, I will do it; and if I cannot reach a thing, I will content myself to be without it. This makes me happy all the day long" (Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Brigham Young, p. 186).
Sermoncitos
Thanksgiving Messages
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Dr. Roy E Howard
November 26, 2015
Thankful in all things
Mosiah 2: 4, 19-20
"Thou shalt thank the Lord thy God in all things." (Doctrine & Covenants 59:7) "My brothers and sisters, to express gratitude is gracious and honorable, to enact gratitude is generous and noble, but to live with gratitude ever in our hearts is to touch heaven" (Thomas S. Monson, “The Divine Gift of Gratitude," Ensign, November 2010). "For when God made promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no greater, he sware by himself, saying, Surely blessing I will bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply thee. And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise." (Hebrews 6:13-15) "I rejoice because I am afflicted. I rejoice because I am poor. I rejoice because I am cast down. Why? Because I shall be lifted up again. I rejoice that I am poor because I shall be made rich; that I am afflicted, because I shall be comforted, and prepared to enjoy the felicity of perfect happiness, for it is impossible to properly appreciate happiness except by enduring the opposite " (Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Brigham Young, p. 178). When we encounter challenges and problems in our lives, it is often difficult for us to focus on our blessings. However, if we reach deep enough and look hard enough, we will be able to feel and recognize just how much we have been given. (The Divine Gift of Gratitude, Thomas S. Monson, October 2010) "Counsel with the Lord in all thy doings, and he will direct thee for good; yea, when thou liest down at night lie down unto the Lord, that he may watch over you in your sleep; and when thou risest in the morning let thy heart be full of thanks unto God; and if ye do these things, ye shall be lifted up at the last day." (Alma 37:37)
Sermoncitos
Thanksgiving Messages
4 And also that they might give thanks to the Lord their God, who had brought them out of the land of Jerusalem, and who had delivered them out of the hands of their enemies, and had appointed just men to be their teachers, and also a just man to be their king, who had established peace in the land of Zarahemla, and who had taught them to keep the commandments of God, that they might rejoice and be filled with love towards God and all men. 19 And behold also, if I, whom ye call your king, who has spent his days in your service, and yet has been in the service of God, do merit any thanks from you, O how you ought to thank your heavenly King! 20 I say unto you, my brethren, that if you should render all the thanks and praise which your whole soul has power to possess, to that God who has created you, and has kept and preserved you, and has caused that ye should rejoice, and has granted that ye should live in peace one with another.
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