A Thankful Heart = A Happy Heart

There's an excellent talk by Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin, of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, about gratitude and how being thankful leads to a happy life. He says:

"Think for a moment, if you will, of someone you know who is truly happy. We’ve all met those who seem to radiate happiness. They seem to smile more than others; they laugh more than others—just being around them makes us happier as well.

"Now think of someone you know who isn’t happy at all. Perhaps they seem 10 years older than they are, drained of energy—perhaps they are angry or bitter or depressed.

"What is the difference between them? What are the characteristics that differentiate the happy from the miserable? Is there something that unhappy people can do to be happier? I believe there is" ( "'Live in Thanksgiving Daily'," Ensign, Sep 2001, 6).

Elder Wirthlin goes on to tell a great story about a very ungrateful man and how unhappy he was. Elder Wirthlin then asks us to think again about those who are happy or unhappy and ask if they "live in thanksgiving daily"? He continues:

"It is difficult to even imagine a resentful person who is grateful or a grateful person who is resentful. President Gordon B. Hinckley has said:

"'Absence of gratitude is the mark of the narrow, uneducated mind. It bespeaks a lack of knowledge and the ignorance of self-sufficiency. It expresses itself in ugly egotism and frequently in wanton mischief.…

"'Where there is appreciation, there is courtesy, there is concern for the rights and property of others. Without it there is arrogance and evil' (in Conference Report, Oct. 1964, 117).

"I believe that many people are unhappy because they have not learned to be grateful. Some carry the burden of bitterness and resentfulness for many years. Some pass their days as though suffering a deep sadness they cannot name. Others are unhappy because life didn’t turn out the way they thought it would....

"The fact is that the external things so valued by the world are often the cause of a great deal of misery in the world.

"Those who live in thanksgiving daily, however, are usually among the world’s happiest people. And they make others happy as well."

Being happy is a choice. Life is full of trials- no one is spared hardship during their mortality- but the one thing we do have is our agency. We have the ability to choose how we will react to life's adversity. When life's challenges bring us down we can choose to be angry and bitter or we can choose to be humble and trust in the Lord. I have personally seen those who have chosen a life of gratitude and those who have not. Of the two lifestyles I want to choose a life of thanksgiving- I want to be happy! Don't you? What are some ways we can give thanksgiving to the Lord? How can we remember to always give thanks to God and others for the blessings and help we receive?