Becuase Not Doing it Would be Hypocritical

Yesterday I gave a talk in Sacrament meeting about living in Thanksgiving daily. One of my favorite parts was...

Nephi is a great example of focusing on the positive and recognizing blessings. I’m sure he had a lot on his mind when he sat down to start writing out his account of his family’s journey to the promised land. He must have remembered the threats on his father’s life that led to leaving behind all of their friends and wealth to become professional campers. In the desert. And then there were all of the times his brothers beat him with sticks, before their families eventually split off from his and became their sworn enemies. Nephi had even seen, in a vision, his umpteenth great grandkids total commitment to wickedness and his people’s complete destruction.

But despite all of that, he didn't start out his record with, “I Nephi, having left behind all my stuff and having been beaten senseless by my brothers on a regular basis, and having seen the eventual extinction of my people, make a record of my proceedings in my days.” Nope. Cause that's not how Nephi rolled. Instead, the first verse of the Book of Mormon reads like a rough draft for a 5th verse to "Count Your Many Blessings".

A large portion of that talk had to do with recognizing the countless blessings we are given by our loving Heavenly Father each and every day, including those things that we might consider to be trials or afflictions.

So, in the spirit of that talk (and because I am soooooo thankful to be done with that talk), I am going to spend the next few minutes being thankful for the storms that have hit my valley over the last nine days.

I am thankful for last week's blizzard because it resulted in two snow days that allowed me to get caught up on sleep and blog reading.

I am grateful for the resulting bad roads that resulted in spending my first Thanksgiving in Burley after living here for over six years.

I am indebted to the foul weather and ice-covered roads for the wonderful Thanksgiving afternoon I spent with Krystal and her family. We ate so much good food we spent the rest of the evening feeling quite blurry.

I feel obliged to the winter weather warnings for providing me with my first Black Friday shopping experience.

I am beholden to the sheets of ice coating all of the streets in our town because they have helped me to better live the commandment to "pray always".
I want to express my appreciation for the time being snowed in afforded me to do my yearly re-reading of the entire Little House series by Laura Ingalls Wilder. The Long Winter hit a bit too close to home, but Laura and Almanzo's courtship in These Happy Golden Years makes me day-dream about having a good old fashioned romance.

"Muchas gracias" to the ten+ inches of snow that required shoveling. It helped make up for the early morning exercising that didn't happen last week.

And a great big "danke!" to Sunday's 40 mile an hour winds that blew most of that snow into the next county.
"Domo arrigato" to the Sunday storm that inspired Elizabeth, Ratha, Chloe, and their new puppy to return from Utah a day early.
Who could not be grateful for this fuzzy face? (The puppy's, that is. Elizabeth does NOT have a fuzzy face. Although, I'm sure Ratha would still be grateful for Elizabeth's face even if it was fuzzy. I will keep you updated on any Elizabeth-face-fuzz related news as it develops...)

I felt extremely thankful when my school district decided to cancel Monday's classes the night before, instead of waiting until 5:30 the next morning like they usually do.

And I am even thankful for the snow itself. The storms that rolled though may have derailed my vacation plans, but the moisture they dropped on our valley and the surrounding mountains will be a big help to the farmers next year. And farmers have a lot in common with cowboys.

So let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.

Until at least four days before Christmas break starts.

Then I look forward to being thankful for clear, dry roads, time spent with family, and cowboys. And maybe farmers. But definitely for Wranglers.