Give Thanks for What You Asked For

General Conference Retrospective

Elder Holland quoted G.K. Chesterton on gratitude.

I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought, and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder.

— thus G. K. Chesterton

Elder Holland spoke on prayer.

If we “ask not amiss,” there are no limits to when, where, or about what we should pray. . . . Prayers are “motion[s] of a hidden fire.”

For me a very prominent theme this conference was prayer, maybe the most prominent, though I unaccountably failed to note it in my retrospective.

One thought that came to me: What if I prayed as much in gratitude as I do in petition? Now, most of us already feel an obligation do this and make sure to count some blessings each and every prayer.  But I mean, what if we prayed as much in gratitude for some answered prayer as much as we prayed to get that answer?  My wife has already helped me learned to make a point of formally praying in gratitude at least once for each answered prayer, often specifically at the point where it is answered.  I have been more of the ‘thanks, Big Guy, thumbs up’ school, but I do not know that God feels my habitual approach appropriately responds to his role in my life.

How powerful would earnest, specific, and repeated gratitude be? It’s natural that I don’t, mortality by design makes us very forward-looking. Still, I can’t help think that if you prayed every night for a year for a witness of the Book of Mormon you would do great things by praying every night in a year in gratitude once the Spirit made your heart burn within you. I think the windows of heaven would be opened so much you would soon be buried by all the things you had to pray in thanks for.