Thanksgiving with the Smiths

This year my family and I spent Thanksgiving holiday with an old friend of mine. About 17 years ago, I entered the Missionary Training Center (MTC) in Provo, UT for my church. There, I met a wonderful individual who became one of my dearest friends. We lost contact for awhile, however, about four years ago E Smith and I were re-connected through Facebook.

We had a wonderful time hanging out with the Smiths. There were jokes, chit-chatting, questions to satisfy a curious mind, and of course lots of laughter.

At the dinner table, everyone had to express what they were thankful for. Everyone kept it short, simple and heartfelt. When it was my turn, I told them that I thankful to be able to spend this wonderful holiday with E and her family. And of course, I was also thankful for my little family.

Dinner was wonderful. E made one of the most delicious sweet potato side dish that I've ever tasted. I'll have to get the recipe from her and share it on this blog. My husband made a delicious corn casserole that we brought to the Thanksgiving dinner. In fact, it was so delicious that I had to share the recipe.

Thankfulness Through a Child's Eyes

This past Sunday was my daughter’s turn to give a talk during our church's Primary program. She was excited and pretty much wrote the talk all by herself. All I did was help her find a passage in the scripture that coincides with the chosen topic and then typed it up so it would be legible enough to read.

When I told my daughter she could choose any topic for her talk (per the message that I received from the Primary secretary), she knew immediately what she wanted to speak about.

These are copies of my daughter’s talk, written on three separate pieces of paper. As you can see, she used a couple different writing tools; a pen and a marker. The talk started out with a scriptural reference, which says, "Doctrine and Covenants 136:28-- 'If thou art merry, praise the Lord with singing, with music, with dancing, and with a prayer of praise and thanksgiving.'  

 

Then it continued with, "Thanksgiving is a special day when all my family is here to celebrate and to play but when it is time to share [what I'm thankful for] all that I am thankful for is God and Jesus and my family, and friends. Thanksgiving is when families get together. We are thankful for food and water, books, a bed, the temple and church."

Even though my daughter called for me to stand beside her at the podium, she did great on her own. I guess all she needed was moral support. And I was more than happy to be there.

It didn't dawn on me until later in the day that the list of things my daughter was thankful for, were what most people would consider the essentials; family, friends, food, a bed, church, etc.

To me, this is a testimony that young children can understand what is truly important in life. They can learn that we don't need material things to be happy. Family, friends, food, and the gospel are what's important and the source of true happiness.

For the record, my daughter is not at all deprived. She has a room full of toys and a closet full of clothes. But the fact that she chose to list only what matters most to her, was what touched my heart so deeply.