Thanksgiving Week

Thanksgiving is a time to be grateful. So what all do we have to be grateful for? Well, as my husband reminded me in our Thanksgiving Dinner prayer, the pioneers and Pilgrims. They left everything they knew behind. They traveled to a practically unknown destination. I'm just guessing, but I'm thinking that a lot of bad things happened to them on their journey to the "Promised Land." They truly sacrificed their time, energies, and families in founding a society in which religious freedom would prevail, where God as our Ruler would lead and where a democratic society would allow the people to progress into their "best" selves. It would allow freedoms to explore, expand, change and adapt to personal beliefs.
So what do we have to be grateful for? As I recollect this past week, with such shockingly bad news that our dog was killed, I have wondered, what is there to be grateful for? As I am reminded that life is too short and bad things can happen right in your own backyard, I think of those Pilgrims and pioneers that have some bad happenings in their backyards. I'm sure setting up a government and establishing a city was not the easiest of things to accomplish. I'm sure they had their moments of ingraditude, and yet, they never failed to show their gratitude to their God.
We have so much to be thankful for! Yes, our dog has been killed, yes bad things can happen right in your backyard, life is too short, but as a wonderful Prophet Alma said, "This is the probationary state, a time to prepare to meet God." We could not have had that type of on opportunity without those Pilgrims and pioneers that landed near Plymouth Rock and fought for what they believed it, and though it all stood by their God, and were grateful.