Deer in the Road

A couple of days ago, Elder Price and I were traveling early in the morning to Eldorado, IL in order to attend a meeting.  As we were driving, we saw a deer running through the black morning across the highway!

In much panic I swerved our little Toyota Corolla to the left, just barely missing it, and we continued on our journey.  Needless to say, I've never been so thankful for a safe journey and heaven's protection.

During the most trying of times, gratitude is an attribute we can always attain.  Early on in the Book of Mormon, the prophet Nephi travels across the great waters with his family towards the promised land.  During their trip across the sea, Nephi counsels his older brethren to cease their rudeness and to remember the Lord, to which his brethren respond aggressively by tying him upon the ship's mast.

For four days Nephi is tied up to the mast!  During those four days, the Lord starts causing the storms to rage, the winds to howl, the rain to be unleashed from above, and the ship to start to lose it's course.  After four days of being bound, Nephi's brethren release him. and though Nephi's wrists and ankles are exceedingly sore, he recounts:

"...I did look unto my God, and I did praise him all the day long; and I did not murmur against the Lord because of mine afflictions. (1 Nephi 18:16)"

No matter what we go through in life, we can always live in "thanksgiving daily" (see Alma 34:38).  No matter what time of the year it is, no matter what we go through in life, we can always count the many blessings which we receive daily from our Father in Heaven.  When we do so, "it will surprise [us] what the Lord has done" (Hymns 241).

"Know ye that the Lord he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.  Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name. (Psalm 100:3-4)"