Thanksgiving

 This is the time of the year of Thanksgiving.  What does Thanksgiving really mean?

 These are some of the words that are associated with Thanksgiving: gratitude, thanksgiving, thankfulness, and appreciation.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thanksgiving

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gratitude

 Many of us have made lists of the things we are thankful for.  I think that is as far as it goes.  Elder Robbins of the 70 came to our stake conference a few weeks ago.  He mentioned being thankful and being grateful.  He said that he looked in the 1820s dictionary to see if there was a difference in Joseph Smith’s day.  Today the two are basically synonyms.  He said that back then, grateful had a meaning of to return favor/ serve others.  To me that seems like one (grateful) is a higher law compared to the other (thankful).

On Thanksgiving morning a thought came to me.  I have always assumed that Thanksgiving was a day of thanks.  I finally realized or literally realized on 11/26/2009 the following:  Thanksgiving has two parts a> thanks and b> giving.  I think I have seen both words, but I had one of those moments of knowledge coming to my mind.  Thanksgiving involves giving thanks and also giving to others.

May we always be thankful for what we have, and may we serve others.  This is not a once a year thing, but we should be doing it always.

The Boy Scout Slogan is “Do a Good Turn Daily.”

http://lds.org/conference/talk/display/0,5232,23-1-1117-27,00.html

President Monson’s talk from the October 2009 General Conference; Sunday Morning session

“What Have I Done For Someone Today?”

http://www.lds.org/topic/gratitude/

Here is the church website topic page about gratitude

“Gratitude is a sincere appreciation for blessings or help we have received.”

Check out the page