Healing Power

Today our family watched President Nelson's message of hope. It was beautiful and made my heart happy. If you haven't watched it, I strongly recommend taking twelve minutes out of your day to do so. He talked about the healing power of gratitude, then challenged everyone listening to transform their social media pages into gratitude journals for the next seven days and to use the hashtag #givethanks. He also asked us to remember to be thankful in our prayers. Then he prayed for the entire world.

As a family we've focused on gratitude all month long. I've been mindful of the many blessings we've experienced, even during this very hard year. But, and this might seem silly, I'd never used a hashtag before. I had initially avoided it because everyone was using them (and we know that I don't like to do what everyone else is doing)  until I think it became a source of pride. But I wanted to take up the Prophet's challenge.

I sat in front of my computer for a long time before posting anything. I've really cut down on how much I post, it's usually just a picture of the kids a few times a year, so I'm out of practice when it comes to composing social media posts. After several false starts and a fair amount of deleting, I finally had a post, and it even included my very first hashtag. 

For the sake of record keeping, here it is:

You know those moments when you can step back from a conversation or situation and recognize the wonder you're experiencing?

Tonight, after the two younger kids had gone to bed, Bryan and I had a chat with the three older kids about history and politics and logical fallacies, and it was amazing. We often talk with our kids about what's happening in the world and the country, about literature and grammar, about silly memes and funny movies. Tonight they had especially insightful questions. And I had a moment in the middle of that discussion when I felt pure gratitude for these six people in my house that share my last name. They are truly remarkable. #givethanks