FHE: President Monson's talk: The Divine Gift of Gratitude

I just love General Conference weekends! This last one in October was especially good! Well, tonight it was my turn to give the Family Home Evening lesson and I chose one of my favorite talks given by our beloved prophet, Thomas S. Monson, on gratitude. This topic has been on my mind a lot lately, probably because I have been complaining lately more than being grateful. Well, this talk has inspired me to look at life with the glass half full rather than half empty.
Some of my favorite quotes from the talk are the following:
"A grateful heart...comes through expressing gratitude to our Heavenly Father for His blessings and to those around us for all that they bring into our lives."
"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."
"Regardless of our circumstances, each of us has much for which to be grateful if we will but pause and contemplate our blessings."
"We have all experienced times when our focus in on what we lack rather than on our blessings. Said the greek philosopher Epictetus, "'He is a wise man who does not grieve for the things which he has not, but rejoices for those which he has."'
The latter quote is the one that really touched me the most. Lately, I have been dwelling on the things I DON'T have rather than the things I DO have and my attitude has been not a good one because of it. Well, tonight, for Family Home Evening, we discussed this talk and we made a Thankful Tree listing 50 things we are thankful for so that we can start to appreciate and remember those blessings which we do have. This was a fun activity, even Lexi could think of things she was grateful for. We have this tree hanging on our wall and we are going to keep it up for the entire month of November. And, everyday, we are going to add leaves (blessings) because everyday there is something new to be thankful for. My hope is that we will see this tree and remember all that the Lord has blessed us with and remember that it is because of Jesus Christ that our lives are so richly blessed. I personally want to thank everyone who has helped me in my life. Most of our tree are filled with PEOPLE who have blessed our lives. People like moms and dads, grandmas and grandpas, aunts and uncles, brothers and sisters, cousins and all other relatives. I am so grateful for the people God has put in my life and I know it was no accident I was sent to the family that I was.