December 2, 2009

Gratitude

I was thinking the other day about showing gratitude to God. Why do we do it? Why should we do it?
Well I caught myself doing it because I've been told to. Thats not bad, at least I'm showing it. But I don't think I'm feeling it. We can show our gratitude to god in many different ways. The best way is in the book of mormon when king Benjemin says "When ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your god." But if we truly want to be serving God with grattitude, then we need to change our attitude. In Moroni chapter 7 of the book of mormon, Moroni explains how we must have the real intent of our heart as we serve god.
     "For behold, God hath said a man being evil cannot do that which is good; for if he offereth a gift, or prayeth unto God, except he shall do it with real intent it profiteth him nothing.
     For behold, it is not counted unto him for righteousness
     For behold, if a man being evil giveth a gift, he doeth it grudgingly; wherefore it is counted unto him the same as if he had retained the gift; wherefore he is counted evil before God."
So if we want to serve god by serving others we must have the right attitude. Now here is the thought that helped me out most.
     Look at what God has done. His purpose as found in the scriptures is to "bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man" and so he does it by creating a world and all that is in it. He creates all things both in the heavens and on earth. Why? for us. Well we have heard this time and time again in our lives, but have you ever asked yourself "what's in it for God?". What God gets out of it is simply the joy that comes from seeing us succeed. He wants us to succeed. He never wants us to fail. So if God gave us all things just to see us succeed and draw closer to him, then it makes it easier for us to understand that we need to show him our love. Thats what he looks forward to. He wants us to love him, and for us to know that he loves us. He wants us to help others to be happy, because it is through us that he can do the most good in others lives. I love God and  know he Loves every single person out there.