I think it's because I've been listening to the Jon Schmidt station on Pandora.

Preface: I've been extra extra spiritual lately. I don't know why, but it's kinda awesome. I just think about things a lot more, and it leads me to draw some pretty cool conclusions. Anyways, here's a story about me being extra extra spiritual today.

Today in seminary we had what we call "Circle of Life," which is basically like a slacking class but it's still really fun and everyone always wants to be there. We put our desks in a circle and everyone has to answer questions about themselves. Today the theme was Thanksgiving, of course. The questions were things like, "What is one of your Thanksgiving traditions?" and, "What is a scripture that makes you feel thankful?" Things like that. But then towards the end, we had to answer, "How does the Lord show you that he is thankful?"

I was stumped. "Wait," I thought. "The Lord has things to be thankful for?"

I mean, we always thank Him for things, because He blesses us with so much. But the thought had never crossed my mind that He has need to give thanks. Who better to give thanks to than His children? I started thinking about what being thankful really means, and realized that what it comes down to is love. He has unconditional love for each and every one of his children. He is thankful when we follow His commandments and turn to Him, because He loves us so much.

Granted, all of this thought was done throughout the entire day, from when the question was asked this morning, up unto this very point. So when I was actually asked the question, I had to answer it. So back to the question: "How does the Lord show you that He is thankful?" I answered, "For me, it is the little things, the tender mercies." And I shared this story with the class (with a little less embellishment, of course)...

Work was atrocious yesterday. There was about four days' worth of work to do, so I was in the worst mood the entire time. I felt like sitting down and crying until the world stopped, but as I walked out of the building to go home at the end of the day, I slowed down, and looked around me. It wasn't cold or windy or raining or even cloudy at all -- in fact, there was the most gorgeous sunset I'd seen since this summer at the coast. And even though I still had a lot on my mind from work, I felt at peace. I knew it would all turn out fine, even just for that moment.

In the grand scheme of things, a sunset and some nice weather is pretty insignificant. But at that moment, I knew that the Lord was watching over me. I knew that even though I had murmured, He still loves me, and doesn't want to see me discouraged or frustrated. I have found that the memories of small things like that have the ability to carry me through many, many hard times to come. It is the Lord's tender mercies that show me that He is thankful.