Five for Friday---Gratitude Edition

1

BREAD

 I am grateful for bread.  A girlfriend and I learned how to make bread when we were married college students.  I had one child and she had none.  Another friend in our ward was a master bread-maker, so we asked her to come over and show us how.  Both of us had tried it on our own and we were miserable failures.  She taught us how, one time, and I have been able to do it ever since.  

I had no idea at the time how much being able to make bread would bless my life.  I make bread every day.  I give bread away.  I make bread for the Sacrament on Sundays.  Several of the boys can make bread.  I have taught many sisters how to make bread.  I have learned from other sisters how to upgrade my bread and make it better (Thanks to Linzy!!!)  Now we make whole-wheat bread with ground wheat.  I only learned how to make white bread in the beginning.   I make all of our bread.........pizza dough, rolls, cinnamon rolls, hamburger buns, muffins, bagels, and others.  I basically use the same recipe I learned with.

2

TREES

I am grateful for trees.  We have the most amazing trees!!!  I have grown up with these trees, camped in them, played in them, hiked in them, born testimony in them, prayed in them.  They are sacred and special to me.  At one time, I thought we were moving out of the area.  I cried and cried.  When I really thought about why I was sad, I realized that I would miss the trees.  Though they are not New York trees, they remind me of the grove where Joseph prayed.  (See reference here.)  It is an amazing spiritual experience to be alone in the forest and just listen to the sounds of nature and feel the promptings of the Spirit.

We have evergreen trees.  They shed their needles in the fall, like other trees shed their leaves, but they never lose them all.  They stay green all year round.  Their root system is very shallow.  They grow close together and their root systems interlock which is what makes them so very strong and why they stand for so long without falling down through treacherous weather.  It is a testimony to helping each other to stand strong through the winds of adversity.  There are so many more lessons that can be learned from trees!

3

 GRASS

Yes!!  I am grateful for grass.  I can recall the day when I was pondering about all of the many blessing I had to be grateful for and I distinctly remember that I was/am grateful for grass.  I love running through the grass barefooted.  I love the way green grass looks against homes in the summer heat.  Grass is usually cool on my feet.  I like to roll in it..............though I cannot too often or I get itchy.   Sometimes in the summer I like to just lie in it, in the evening and look up at the stars.

4

WHERE I LIVE

I am very grateful for where I live.  I love my home!  I love my nation!  I am grateful there are brave men and women willing to serve our country to defend the principles that make our nation great!  I am grateful they are willing to serve in all branches of the armed forces.  Though I may not always agree with decisions that are made, we have an amazing government!  I am grateful for wise men who listened to their neighbors, listened to their conscience, and listened to their God for creating the amazing government which watches over our land.

5

ANCESTORS

This is not a tombstone of one of my ancestors.........it is just a tombstone.  None of my ancestors are buried by where I live.  But I am very grateful for my ancestors.  I am grateful for their sacrifices, for living in an earlier time period with fewer advances in modern technology.  I am grateful some of them were willing to travel in impoverished conditions, to clear land, to bury their children and loved ones before the advances in modern medicine.  I have been doing a little work lately on our genealogy.  I have been reading some of their stories.  I wish I had more.

I feel a great desire to show my appreciation for their sacrifices by making the ordinances of the gospel available to them through services performed in our temples.  I know it doesn't mean they will accept them or even want them, but for those who do, I am grateful that I can show my appreciation for the work they did to pave the way for my family today.  (If you would like more information about this subject, click here.)  

There is my Friday Five Post.  To see Heather's, click here.   Have a fabulous holiday weekend!!  For those of you outside of the United States:

Thanksgiving, or Thanksgiving Day, is a holiday celebrated in the United States on the fourth Thursday in November. It has officially been an annual tradition since 1863, when, during the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed a national day of "Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens," to be celebrated on Thursday, November 26.^[1] As a federal and popular holiday in the U.S., Thanksgiving is one of the major holidays of the year. Together with Christmas and the New Year, Thanksgiving is a part of the broader holiday season.
The event that some Americans commonly call the "First Thanksgiving" was celebrated by the Pilgrims after their first harvest in the New World in 1621.^[2] The first Thanksgiving feast lasted three days, and was attended by 53 Pilgrims and 90 Native Americans.^[3] The New England colonists were accustomed to regularly celebrating "thanksgivings"—days of prayer thanking God for blessings such as military victory or the end of a drought, though the 1621 events were likely not a religious observation.<sup>[4]  (Wikipedia source)


Although, I am going to take exception with the last statement.  I think the events of 1621 were a religious observation-------an observation of Thanksgiving and gratitude to the Almighty for their safety, and bounteous harvest so they could survive the winter.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!  We all have so much to be grateful for!</sup>