I was assigned a talk on gratitude today, so I started researching talks about gratitude. I came upon one by President Uchtdorf titled "Grateful in Any Circumstance." Go give it a look here!
The idea to have a disposition of gratefulness at any point in life is absolutely amazing to me. How important this is!
My good friend Kathy, who is actually the mother of my really good friend who is serving a mission currently, is a great example of having an attitude of gratitude in a heartbreaking time. Kathy just lost her daughter last week, who had been struggling with BPD. Despite the hardship, Kathy has shown a greater love and gratitude for this wonderful gospel. I was able to talk with Kathy about the many tender mercies experienced throughout the past week and a half. Kathy says the miracles just keep coming!
I happened upon this story, which I've read before, but with the events that have happened it took an even greater meaning.
"In a mother’s womb were two babies. One asked the other: “Do you believe in life after delivery?” The other replied, “Why, of course. There has to be something after delivery. Maybe we are here to prepare ourselves for what we will be later.”
“Nonsense” said the first. “There is no life after delivery. What kind of life would that be?”
The second said, “I don’t know, but there will be more light than here. Maybe we will walk with our legs and eat from our mouths. Maybe we will have other senses that we can’t understand now.”
The first replied, “That is absurd. Walking is impossible. And eating with our mouths? Ridiculous! The umbilical cord supplies nutrition and everything we need. But the umbilical cord is so short. Life after delivery is to be logically excluded.”
The second insisted, “Well I think there is something and maybe it’s different than it is here. Maybe we won’t need this physical cord anymore.”
The first replied, “Nonsense. And moreover if there is life, then why has no one has ever come back from there? Delivery is the end of life, and in the after-delivery there is nothing but darkness and silence and oblivion. It takes us nowhere.”
“Well, I don’t know,” said the second, “but certainly we will meet Mother and she will take care of us.”
The first replied “Mother? You actually believe in Mother? That’s laughable. If Mother exists then where is She now?”
The second said, “She is all around us. We are surrounded by her. We are of Her. It is in Her that we live. Without Her this world would not and could not exist.”
Said the first: “Well I don’t see Her, so it is only logical that She doesn’t exist.”
To which the second replied, “Sometimes, when you’re in silence and you focus and you really listen, you can perceive Her presence, and you can hear Her loving voice, calling down from above."
We are all in the womb right now. Many cannot see life continuing after this mortal time on Earth, but I know that our Father and Mother are waiting to embrace us when we leave this place. Just how our parents here want to comfort us in our greatest trial, so does our Father in Heaven. Perhaps that is why Kathy's daughter left this life, because she was struggling so hard that Heavenly Father could not stand another minute with her not in his arms.
"But behold, all things have been done in the wisdom of him who knoweth all things."
-2 Nephi 2:24
I know that God does things that we can't understand fully, but he does them with reason, in wisdom. He helps design our lives so that we can be blessed, helped, and made stronger in this life in order to prepare us for the joy that is yet to come. I love my Savior, and know He lives. I know that we have Heavenly Parents who love us more than we can even begin to imagine. We are given trials to make us stronger, and we must learn how to be grateful in those trials. I am so grateful for this gospel, and the knowledge and comfort it brings me and those I love.
I write these things as a testimony in the name of my Redeemer, Jesus Christ. Amen.
