grateful

The first Sunday of every month is "Fast and Testimony" meeting at my church.  On that day, the members of my faith fast for two meals and at church, they have the opportunity to stand and bear their testimony of their faith.  On Fast and Testimony day in November, both Tony and I stood and talked of faith and gratitude and bid our fellow church members good-bye as we thought we would be moving to North Carolina in a few weeks.  My boss called the very next day to tell me that they had not only changed their mind about relocating me to North Carolina, but that they were terminating me.

In my testimony the previous day, I talked about a Bishop (ecclesiastical leader) that I had had several years ago when I lived in San Francisco.  That Bishop was a colorful kind of guy - an undercover FBI agent that was certainly rough around the edges.  He didn't fit the typical mold of a Mormon Bishop and I loved that about him. 

He told me about how he was talking to a woman on a plane who was a different religion and they got into a bit of a doctrinal discussion.  That woman believed that she was saved by grace alone.  Mormons believe that we are saved by grace and works - we do everything we can to live a Christ-like life and then grace takes up the slack.  (I see beauty in both doctrines and I'm not here to debate them.)

At the end of the discussion, my Bishop asked this woman this question:  If you are saved by grace alone, what motivates you to follow Christ?  Her answer humbled him to the core.  With a look of amazement on her face, she simply said:  "why, because I'm so grateful."

I love that. Her motivation in life wasn't to obey commandments so she would be blessed.  Her motivation was gratitude, pure and simple.  I've often thought about this woman and I admire her for her level of gratitude.

And I wish my gratitude was that strong. I wish gratitude was my motivating factor in my life.  I think about how my relationship with my Heavenly Father would be different if I thanked him in continual prayer for everything (instead of a continual prayer of requests).  I think about how my relationship with my friends and family would be if I continually thanked them for every thing they did for me.  I think about how my relationship with my husband would be if gratitude were my sole motivation in my marriage.

Tony and I started a tradition a few years ago writing in Gratitude Journals.  Instead of writing in our own personal journal about things we were grateful for, I wrote in a Tony's journal and he wrote in mine.  Sadly, we have not kept that tradition going, but today I intend to revive that.  I will write in Tony's gratitude journal about something I am grateful for and leave it on his bedside table for him to find and expect nothing in return.

Feelings and expressions without any conditions or expectations. 
That's what gratitude is anyway right?