Video: #GiveThanks | President Russell M. Nelson on the Healing Power of Gratitude​

President Russell M. Nelson on the Healing Power of Gratitude​ – powered by Happy Scribe

As a doctor, I know the value of good therapy. So, dear friends, may I prescribe to activities to help us experience the healing power of gratitude?

During my 96 years of life, I’ve seen a Great Depression, a world war, the rise of terrorism, hunger and poverty throughout the world. I have also witnessed the advent of space travel, the Internet, medical advancements galore, and countless other discoveries that delight me. Prior to my ministry, I was a cardiovascular and thoracic surgeon and spent many hours in operating rooms as a surgical resident. I was one of the research team that developed the first heart lung machine to be used in a human open heart operation.

Subsequently, I had the privilege of helping to save lives of hundreds of patients and sadly, I watched other patients die.

Despite my best efforts as a man of science and as a man of faith, the current worldwide pandemic has been of great concern to me. As a man of science, I appreciate the critical need to prevent the spread of infection. I also honor the devoted service of health care professionals and grieve for the many whose lives have been upended by covid-19. As a matter of faith, however, I view the current pandemic as only one of many ills that plague our world, including hate, civil unrest, racism, violence, dishonesty and lack of civility.

Skilled scientists and researchers are laboring diligently to develop and distribute a vaccine against the coronavirus, but there is no medication or operation that can fix the many spiritual woes and maladies that we face.

There is, however, a remedy, one that may seem surprising because it flies in the face of our natural intuitions.

Nevertheless, its effects have been validated by scientists as well as men and women of faith. I’m referring to the healing power. Of gratitude. The Book of Psalms is filled with admonitions to express gratitude. Here are just three of them. It is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord. Oh, give thanks unto the Lord for his good. Come before his presence with Thanksgiving. Jesus Christ frequently expressed gratitude. Before raising Lazarus from the dead. Before miraculously multiplying loaves and fishes and before passing the cup to his disciples at the Last Supper.

The savior prayed and gave thanks to God.

No wonder the apostle Paul later declared in everything give thanks Overmind nine and a half decades of life, I have concluded that counting our blessings is far better than recounting our problems.

No matter our situation, showing gratitude for our privileges. Is a fast acting and the long lasting spiritual prescription. His gratitude spare us from sorrow, sadness, grief and pain, no. But it does soothe our feelings, it provides us with a greater perspective on the very purpose and joy of life.

Nearly 16 years ago, my wife Daniel and I were sitting on the sofa holding hands while we watched television.

Suddenly, she collapsed. Despite being well trained to treat the very thing that ended her life, I could not save my own life. Denzel and I were blessed with nine daughters and one son. Tragically, I have lost to those daughters to cancer. No parent is prepared to lose a child. And yet, despite these and other difficult experiences, I am incredibly grateful eternally for so very many things. I’m grateful to God for the nearly 60 years Daniel and I shared together.

For a lifetime of love and joy and cherished memories. And I thank him for my wife, Wendy, whom I met after Daniel’s passing. Wendy now fills my life with joy. I’m grateful to God for the years ahead with my two departed daughters. This father’s heart melts when I see attributes of those girls in the precious faces of their children and grandchildren.

We can all give thanks for the beauties of the earth and the majesty of the heavens and give us an inkling of the vastness of eternity.

We can give thanks for the gift of life, for our amazing bodies and minds that allow us to grow and learn, we can give thanks for art, literature and music that nurture our souls.

We can give thanks for the opportunity to repent, start over, make amends and build character.

We can give thanks for our families, friends and loved ones. We can give thanks for the opportunity to help cherish and serve with another. Which makes life so much more meaningful. We can even give thanks for our trials from which we learn the things we would not know otherwise. Most of all. We can give thanks unto God the father of our spirits, which makes us all brothers and sisters, one great global family. As a doctor, I know the value of good therapy.

So, dear friends, may I prescribe to activities to help us experience the healing power of gratitude? First. I invite you just for the next seven days to turn social media into your own personal gratitude journal post every day about what you are grateful for, who you are grateful for, and why you are grateful at the end of seven days, see if you feel happier and more at peace.

Use the hashtag. Give thanks. Working together, we can flood social media with a wave of gratitude that reaches the four corners of the earth.

Perhaps this will fulfill, in part, the promise God gave to Father Abraham that through his descendants, all families of the Earth shall be blessed.

Second, let us unite in thanking God through daily prayer. Jesus Christ taught his disciples to pray. By first expressing gratitude to God and then petitioning him for the things we need, prayer brings forth miracles. In that spirit, I would now like to offer a prayer for the world and everyone in it as I pray.

I hope you will feel inspired to do the same, pouring out your heart in gratitude for the countless blessings God has given you and petitioning him to heal our hearts, our families, our societies and the world at large.

Our father in heaven, as fellow passengers on this planet Earth, we humbly prior to the. We thank thee for life and all that sustains life. We thank thee for the beauties of the earth, for order in the universe, the planets, stars and all things of eternal significance. We thank thee for these laws that protect and guide us. We thank you for their mercy and loving watch care. We thank thee for our families and loved ones who fill our lives with joy.

We are grateful for all who are striving to combat the covid pandemic. Please bless them with protection and inspiration, well, they’ll help us end this virus that has plagued so many of those children. We thank thee for the leaders of nations and others who strive to lift us. We pray for relief from political strife. Without bless us, with the healing spirit that unites us, despite our differences, will now also help us repent from selfishness, unkindness, pride and prejudice of any kind.

So that we can better serve and love one another as brothers and sisters and as the grateful children. We love the our dear father and pray for thy blessings upon us in the name of thy beloved son, Jesus Christ.

Amen. Thank you for listening. May God bless you one and all.

HIGHLIGHTS: Russell M. Nelson on Gratitude (General Conference 1984-2020) – powered by Happy Scribe

The consistency of prophetic council over time creates a powerful concert of clarity and a warning volume far louder than solo performances can ever produce. Feelings of gratitude emerge as I acknowledge the goodness of my parents and of all eight of my pioneer great grandparents who were converted to the church in the populous nations of Europe, we love our sons in law as our own, and they’re so grateful for an unbroken string of temple marriages that link them to us forever.

For those precious grandchildren already here and for those others on the way, we express our gratitude unitedly.

We thank the Almighty for the wondrous prolongation of the life of elder Bruce R. McConkey, enabling him to preach that powerful sermon. Our gratitude is profound.

Spiritual self-esteem begins with the realization that each new morning is a gift from God.

Therefore, our first noble deed of the morning should be a humble prayer of gratitude. I did not fully appreciate the significance of prayerful greetings until I became a father myself. I’m so grateful that our children never gave their mother or dad the silent treatment.

Now I sense how our Heavenly Father may appreciate our prayers morning and night that I can imagine the pangs of his sorrow because of silence from any of his children. To me, such ingratitude seems comparable to sullen goldfish, oblivious to kind providers who sprinkle food in their bowl. Indeed, those who pray can worship God with exceedingly great joy.

I’m deeply grateful that we bear the priesthood, each of us for ordained from the foundation of the world. For that responsibility as a symbol of gratitude, I have penned a few lines to be sung as the concluding portion of my message to this song. I have assigned an ancient title, Hosanna! The Prayerful Shout of Fervent Praise. Through times, immortal, endless, stay in love, he guides our way beyond the realms of heavens, beam our great God, Elohim, Hosanna to his holy name, our fathers, God is still the same.

That holy night on in Bethlehem, his son was born among men to ransom from a timeless grave. Each child of God to save Hosanna to his holy name. Our Fathers. God is still the same. His priesthood, power restored to Earth to bless each soul given birth. Our song of prayer. To him we raise proclaiming joy and praise Hosanna to his holy name. Our Fathers. God is still the same. That is why we respond to our own calls from the Lord when we comprehend his voluntary atonement.

Any sense of sacrifice on our part becomes completely overshadowed by a profound sense of gratitude for the privilege of serving him. Thank the Lord for these sisters who, like our Heavenly Father, love us not only for what we are, but for what we may become.

Humbly, I thank God for my mother, my sisters, my daughters, granddaughters, and for my special sweetheart, companion and friend. My wife, I have felt impressed to conclude this message on prayer with a prayer presented as a hymn, the Lord has said that the song of the righteous is a prayer unto me. The music comes from our book of hymns for which I have written new words for the.

We will, of course, fall be see, for instance. I really hard for some. Three. Louis.

Oh, Jesus Christ, the man. I express special gratitude to the Lord Jesus Christ. I am thankful for his loving kindness and for his open invitation to come on to him. Thanks to him, no condition is hopeless.

Thanks to him, brighter days are ahead, both here and hereafter, real joy awaits each of us on the other side of sorrow, brothers and sisters, when we receive the news that President Gordon B. Hinckley had passed away.

Each of us immediately felt a deep sense of loss, knowing that his destiny was in the hands of the Lord.

However, we have felt our mood shift from grief to gratitude.

We are very grateful for what we have learned from this great prophet of God. My beloved brethren and sisters.

I’m deeply grateful for each of you.

Together, we feel a profound sense of gratitude for the gospel of Jesus Christ in this world.

Abounding with misery, we’re truly thankful for God’s great plan of happiness.

Recently, Sister Nelson and I enjoy the beauty of tropical fish in a small private aquarium, fish with vivid colors and a variety of shapes and sizes darted back and forth.

I asked the attendant nearby who provides food for these beautiful fish? She responded, I do.

Then I asked, Have they ever thanked you? She replied, Not yet.

I thought of some people I know who are just as oblivious to their creator and their true pride of life, they live from day to day without an awareness of God and his goodness under them, how much better it would be if all could be more aware of God’s providence and love and express that gratitude to him and taught.

Let us give thanks to God for his death, work, righteousness forever. Our degree of gratitude is a measure of our love for him each day.

Ours is the challenge to access the power of the atonement so that we can truly change, become more Christlike and qualify for the gift of exaltation and live eternally with God, Jesus Christ and our families for these powers, privileges and gospel gifts.

Thanks be to God.

As a member of the Corps, the 12 Apostles, I pray daily for revelation and gave thanks to the Lord every time he spoke to my heart and mind. Or to be sure, there may be times when you feel as though the heavens are closed. But I promise that as you continue to be obedient, expressing gratitude for every blessing the Lord gives you, and as you patiently honor the Lord’s timetable, you will be given the knowledge and understanding you seek.

My dear brothers and sisters, you are living exemplars of the fruits that come from following the teachings of Jesus Christ. I thank you. I love you.