Gratitude

 How to be grateful at all times

Have you ever thought about why it's hard to be grateful even in hard times? Why do people say it's important to be grateful in times when life is hard? I feel like people often say that, but we don't hear the reason why it's important to be grateful, especially why to have that attitude in hard times. It's easy to be thankful when life's going well, and you have what you want, and nothing is changing too much. However, we forget all the sudden the good things we have, when something bad comes along all too often. 

In the videos about an attitude of gratitude, and the readings that I had this week for my class about how to be grateful and positive, really helped me understand what it actually means to be grateful. We usually think of it as being thankful for what is happening in life at the moment and thankful for what we have. But, I think I learned that it means not letting those negative things that can happen in life, affect us negatively. When bad things happen, we still can be thankful and grateful. We can be thankful by looking at situations with the mentality of the cup half-full kind of perspective. We can be thankful God still lives, and knows us. We can find the silver-lining when we don't understand what God is doing by remembering the Savior undertook our pain and weaknesses, He knows trials more than we can ever experience. We can be thankful the Savior suffered for us so we don't have to suffer as He did.

I learned also that being grateful can have many benefits mentally and physically. I read in one book that being grateful for things even in hard times, will help you get through that challenge. There are things to find that you can be happy about, and you can be thankful your situation isn't as bad as someone else's maybe. I ready that being grateful will allow you to receive more blessings, and then when life gets better for you, you will really be thankful and not take advantage of the good times you have then.

Overall, being grateful helps you develop a strength, character, and attitude that will only benefit you in your life. No one likes to be around people who complain, and when you have someone that show you the silver lining, you may see your situation isn't as bad as it could be. Focusing on the negative doesn't make it better. Being thankful could also open you to a new solution to fix your situation and allow you to grow closer to the Savior, who is there for us especially in hard times when we don't know how to have hope or be grateful.