I don't know how to answer this question.
I am thankful for the Atonement of Christ that makes all other things in mortality possible. We needed to come and experience evil and good and be able to escape the evil. There was no other way.
I am grateful to have been born of goodly parents.
I am grateful for siblings who have been my life companions, friends, and sharers in my joys and sorrows.
I am beyond grateful for my sweet Jodi. I cannot imagine a better person to complete me.
I am grateful that my children have chosen to walk in the light of the gospel of Jesus Christ. I know that I guarded that path and did all I could to keep my children on it, but I also tried to allow agency. That is scary business.
I am grateful for my growing number of grandchildren. I am beyond grateful for their love and affection. I cannot imagine old age without such sweetness to counter the effects of age and life. I have discovered that, though we cannot reenter Eden ourselves, we can create it for our children and thus enjoy it again, and perhaps enjoy it more fully than we were able to enjoy it as children. I rest in the assurance that I will have posterity who will be powerful in the gospel of Jesus Christ and in his priesthood.
I am grateful for the vision of the peace of the Saints in Zion that gives me hope in a world carelessly heading for disaster. Pandora's box has been reopened by we who have sworn "Never again!" How careless and foolish we are.
I am grateful that Christ comes as a meek and lowly lamb and not as a conqueror with sword brandished. We will have come to a more perfect understanding when this is the Christ that we desire, and not the Thundering God of Mount Olympus.
I am grateful for the good things that come from the earth, both to gladden the heart and delight the senses. There are so many good things to see, smell, hear, taste, and touch. I am grateful for a God who gave us all of these good things to make our encounter with evil survivable.
I am grateful to work in a profession that I love. Recently a student of mine posted a video she had taken of my playing a guitar for my students. In response students from Wheaton, Monett, Western Plains, and Scott City thanked me for what I did as a teacher. None of them suggested that they were more competent at English (except one who said she had gone on the publish as an author); instead they said that I had treated them with kindness as if they were my own children. I am so grateful to have these blessings heaped on my old head instead of the hot coals of rebuke, regret, and shame.
I am grateful that my life has been a bit of heaven: beginning, middle, and end.
