Thanksgiving Devotional-Gratitude and the Cherry Pie

Gary actually did the Thanksgiving devotional prior to Thanksgiving week as we didn't have devotionals that week (and we were at our Family Reunion).  He did a great job putting together quotes from different prophets and apostles about gratitude...and then he asked me to share the thought that I had given at our zone leadership council meeting as a spiritual thought the day before--He claims it was just a perfect ending for what he was trying to talk about....not sure how that worked out for HIS devotional but I love the story I shared.  You have read this before if you are a regular "reader" of the blog, but here are my remarks--Remember that the people at the meeting didn't know about Ben's illness nor many of those in our zone--

Gratitude and the Cherry Pie

My scripture thought has a scripture, a quote, and a blog post.

The scripture:  :  D &C 93:1  Verily I say unto you my friends, ^afear not, let your hearts be comforted; yea, rejoice evermore, and in everything give ^bthanks;” 

The quote—given by Eder Uchtdorf in a 2014 conference talk about gratitude:

“This type of gratitude transcends whatever is happening around us.  It surpasses disappointment, discouragement and despair.  It blooms just as beautifully in the icy landscape of winter as it does in the pleasant warmth of summer.”  I loved that contrast of summer and winter.

I don’t keep a journal, but I do have a family blog and this is a post from just over two years ago—a little less than 4 weeks before we started this mission. Let me set some context.  After just a few weeks of decline, my mother-in-law passed away early on the last Monday morning of September.  That same day, our son, Ben, who suffers from schizophrenia, entered a community inpatient unit and a few days later, because of how sick he was sent to a local ER where he waited for 96 hours—five days for a bed in an inpatient hospital.—definitely a winter phase in our lives and yet sweet miracles all around us.

This post was about the Thursday—the day before my mother in law’s funeral and our second day in the ER with Ben.

“In the afternoon, I got a text from my sister-in-law, Vonette, checking on Ben and telling me that Maggie (Charon's mother-in-law) had dropped off an apple pie and a cherry pie.

My texted response: "Save me a piece of cherry pie...that is my all-time favorite pie.  It is what my mom made me for my birthday every year since I was ten or so.  It feels like a tender mercy that Maggie would bring one today."

Later that night, Tosha texted me and said that Charon had dropped off a whole cherry pie with instructions that I was to get the whole pie.  When I got home around 9:30, Tosha and I had a piece and talked for a while in the quiet house before I went to work on my talk.  It was great and it was just a perfect thing in the middle of a very hard week.  Again, it felt like my mom was watching and helping me each day.

Now for the rest of the story:

In the limo after the funeral, Charon turned and asked how I liked the pie.  "I loved it," I said.  She and Vonette exchanged glances and started laughing and I knew there was more to the story.  It turned out that Maggie had brought over an apple pie and a STRAWBERRY pie, not cherry.  However, when I responded the way I did, my sisters-in-laws became determined to get me a cherry pie.  They called all of the bakeries in the area but could only find a cherry pie in South Salt Lake.  They were actually thinking about going to get it, but realized that they had too much to do to prepare for the funeral and the family gathering to make that trip especially in the late afternoon traffic.  So, Charon called Maggie and asked her to bake me a cherry pie.  Maggie had never made a cherry pie before but headed to the store for pie filling and baked an amazing and beautiful pie (sorry, no picture--it wasn't a picture taking day.) It was that pie that was delivered to my door after a long day at the ER.

And that, my friends, is how God works through other people to remind you that you are loved, you are known, and therefore you can do another day!

In the words of one of my favorite hymns-- (second verse)

In ev’ry condition—in sickness, in health,

In poverty’s vale or abounding in wealth,

At home or abroad, on the land or the sea—

As thy days may demand, as thy days may demand,

As thy days may demand, so thy succor shall be.”

Today I can testify again that even in after another winter of our lives, our Heavenly Father and His Son, Jesus Christ have and will always help us meet the demands of our days and Their succor is always enough---and sometimes it even is a cherry pie.  Let this testimony stand as my thanks again.