Giving Thanks

Every year I usually list all the things I am thankful for in an effort to recognize my blessings, more, recognize Heavenly Father's hand in my life, and have a more positive attitude. While I love doing that each year, this year felt like something else was needed...a change...in my thinking, attitude, and behavior.

I prepared two Young Women lessons this month, one on Attitude and one on Giving Thanks. Both lessons were profoundly personal for me as I recognized areas I need to improve...still! After years of working on myself, especially my attitude, I can still see so much room for improvement that it sometimes gets very discouraging. So discouraging that I feel overwhelmed and dissatisfied with myself as a person.

The Challenge
I decided to challenge myself with a new Thanksgiving tradition...to be thankful for people and not just a list of things (which often included people). The list of things is a great starting point, but I felt that my focus was on little things sometimes, which are important to recognize as well, but I think for me, I needed to focus on the people I am thankful for and the relationships in my life.

So, I embarked on a plan to give thanks for various people in my life. This has worked so-so...it has been more challenging than I thought. It is easy to be thankful for things, they are easy to list, but how do I show gratitude for people? I realized I needed to be more vocally thankful for individuals in my life.

So, thanks peeps! I am so thankful for my core family (pictured above), my extended family, all of our friends, our ward family, and our homeschooling friends. We have so many friends from former wards that we love and miss!

This year as we embarked on the Missouri Adventure, it has been very apparent to me that what I miss the most from Arizona is the people we love that we left behind. I do not miss the desert, but we very much miss our family and friends.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving!