Gratitude

In the choice of my own happiness or sadness, I can easily see that this one characteristic makes more difference than any other. And I believe it to be the very seed of charity. I refer to this quote from a Prophet of God for Thanks-LIVING is Thanks-GIVING:

President Thomas S. Monson

The expressed gratitude by one merited the Master's blessing, the ingratitude shown by the nine, His disappointment.

Through divine intervention, those who were lepers were spared from a cruel, lingering death and given a new lease on life. The expressed gratitude by one merited the Master's blessing, the ingratitude shown by the nine, His disappointment.

Like the leprosy of yesteryear are the plagues of today. They linger; they debilitate; they destroy. They are to be found everywhere. Their pervasiveness knows no boundaries. We know them as selfishness, greed, indulgence, cruelty, and crime, to identify but a few. Surfeited with their poison, we tend to criticize, to complain, to blame, and, slowly but surely, to abandon the positives and adopt the negatives of life.

(I cherish this small photo that I bought at the Holocaust museum in Jerusalem. There are so many things in this life that we cannot choose, but our thoughts, smile wrinkles, and thankfulness...we always can).