4 Dec 2021, Saturday

 4 Dec 2021, Saturday

Prioritized Daily Task 

I kept waking up last night with mucus drainage from my chest and causing me to cough.  Debbie went to exercise.  We had prayer together when she got home.  She cooked a big breakfast, and I took a Panklav and Mucinex pill to dry up the mucus.                                                                            Alex and Riley came by showered, and got dressed on their way to a wedding reception in Sandy, UT.

Debbie and I studied D&C 138 in Come Follow Me this morning and evening with Jared Halverson Unshaken podcast.  One question he presented was, "If you had only 3 hours to live, how would you use your time?"  He brought this into focus with Jesus Christ's life here on this earth.  He spent 3 years in mortal ministry and 3 days in the spirit world.  How did Jesus Christ use His time; what did he do?   He atoned for the sins of all and organized others to carry on the work He started.  I would want my 3 hours spent with the ones I love teaching them to carry on the work Jesus Christ started, especially in our families. 

“There is nothing more important we can do this Christmas than to rivet our focus on the Savior and on the gift of what His life really means to each of us.” President Russell M. Nelson, Dec 6, 2020

Another thought was Heavenly Father gives all of His children as many opportunities to choose Jesus Christ as can be given, here in this life and in the spirit world until they are so firm and determined in their will not to accept His teaching there is no way they will ever change.                          In the spirit world, missionaries can teach and preach but they cannot baptize, confer the Holy Ghost or perform temple ordiances.  It is similar to sister missionaries in this mortal world, they can teach and preach, but are dependent on others to baptize, confer the Holy Ghost and in some cases perform temple ordiances.

2 PM - Alex performing in Honor Band at American Fork Jr. High School

I rested today and did some reading.  One article I read was on gratitude:

“The limits to gratitude’s health benefits are really in how much you pay attention to feeling and practicing gratitude,” said neuroscientist Glenn Fox, a gratitude expert at the University of Southern California. “It’s very similar to working out, in that the more you practice, the better you get. The more you practice, the easier it is to feel grateful when you need it.” 

 "........... After seven days, those who kept a gratitude journal had significant improvements in measures of anxiety, depression, and spiritual well-being, so much so that the researchers concluded that “mindful gratitude journaling could positively affect the state of suffering, psychological distress, and quality of life.....”   

Those who are grateful have been found to have a better sense of the meaning of life.   A state of gratitude is based on a person’s ability to be empathic and experience grateful emotions that promote prosocial behavior. As a trait, it describes the practice of being grateful, noticing the little things in life, and appreciating the positive in the world and in other people. Gratitude can be felt from both being helped by others and habitually focusing on the good in your life.

A study published in Clinical Psychology Review found that gratitude has a positive effect on psychopathology, especially depression, adaptive personality characteristics, positive social relationships, and physical health, including stress and sleep. What’s more, they noted that “the benefits of gratitude to well-being may be causal.”

Fox also explained that “benefits associated with gratitude include better sleep, more exercise, reduced symptoms of physical pain, lower levels of inflammation, lower blood pressure, and a host of other things we associate with better health,” including improved resilience.

It’s likely that gratitude leads to benefits via multiple mechanisms, not only by improving life satisfaction, but also by contributing to an increase in healthy activities and a willingness to seek help for health problems. Those who are grateful have even been found to have a better sense of the meaning of life by being able to perceive good family function and peer relationships.  Epoch Times News article by Joseph Mercola