It's a dandy day! I loved it when Marty Lybbert used to say that, as I could feel his joy and gratitude. My heart is full of joy and gratitude to have the gospel of Jesus Christ in my life.
I am so grateful for my Heavenly family. I know that God is our Heavenly Father and that He knows us and loves us, we are His precious children. I know that we also have a Mother in Heaven, and how happy I am to know that. I am so grateful for my brother, Jesus Christ. He is my Savior and Redeemer. I can't comprehend his invincible love that caused Him to suffer for my sins and for the sins of everyone else and to die for us. He did it, so we could conquer death and sin. How grateful I am for his precious, matchless gift to repent and repair myself each day and strive to become one of his true disciples. How grateful I am to receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. He has born witness to my soul that the Plan of Salvation is the Plan of Happiness and that it is true!
How grateful I am for my Earthly family. I got to grow up spending lots of time with lots of grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins and how grateful I am for those relationships. My parents are divorced and even though that has caused sadness, it has led to more happiness in having more parents, and siblings, and nieces and nephews that I love tremendously. How incredibly blessed and thankful I am for my husband (and his extended family) and for each and everyone of our children. My family is my greatest treasure!
How grateful I am for my Church family in the Chapel Hill ward. Adding up the 3 times I have lived in the ward makes it the longest I have ever lived in. Many of the faces are the same from over the years, but many faces have changed. Each face past and present has touched my heart as we gather together to worship God and serve Him, by loving and serving each other. How grateful I am for the scriptures, the modern day prophets, and for temples all around the world where we can make covenants with God, receive precious ordinances, and serve those who passed on without having the opportunity to do so for themselves. I love how in our church we are organized by families, wards, stakes, areas, and then the whole general population worldwide. I feel like our church is a global small town, and no matter where I go in life I can always find family at church.
I know that the gospel of Jesus Christ is LOVE, period. We are commanded to Love God with all of our hearts, might, mind, and strength. We are also commanded to love our neighbors as ourselves. It goes beyond that though. We are commanded to love others as Christ loves us, and He died for us to save us! We are called to love and help save one another. And our neighbors include our enemies. I am not perfect and fall short of my expectations, but I continue to try to love God and others the best that I can every day. What a wonderful world we will have when we all put loving God and others first!
I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
