"Thank you Daddy!"

So today's post is about my sweet little girl Audrey. Yes, she is sweet even though she sometimes tries to flush her clothes down the toilet... Anyway, a couple days ago I took her outside to pick some raspberries. We have the whole south side of our house lined with them. She was holding a bowl as I picked the raspberries and put them in. First of all I have to say that my little girl knows how to eat those berries! She ate about half a bowl in the 15 minutes we were out picking.

The real part I wanted to write about though was hearing her sweet little voice say, "thank you Daddy," each time that I put any raspberries in the bowl she was holding. First of all it is so cute to hear her trying to say it correctly... She can say "Daddy" pretty well but thank you comes out something like "daint do"... So cute and sweet! Little girl just melts my heart!

Anyway, each time I put berries in she would thank me. After a few times I really started to get a kick out of it. Then after she had said it probably 20 or so times, it started to make me really think... She was so willing and happy to show gratitude for every little thing that I did for her or gave to her. I am guessing she thanked me around 25-30 times in those 15 minutes of picking berries. I thought to myself... Am I like that with God?  My Heavenly Father probably does things for me at least that many times in a day... Do I recognize His hand and give Him thanks? 

My daughter taught me a fantastic lesson that day about gratitude, and recognizing God's hand in our lives. Perhaps this recognition of all the things that God does for us in this life is one of the important ways that we fulfill the scriptural injunction to, "pray always." 

I believe that God is very involved with the smallest details in our lives. Heavenly Father is very well acquainted with everything happening in our lives.  Elder Bruce R. McConkie taught that, God our Heavenly Father "has all power, all might, and all dominion. There is no power he does not possess and no truth he does not know. Every good thing dwells in him independently in its eternal fulness. He is the Creator, Upholder, and Preserver of all things. His name is Elohim, and he is our Father in heaven, the literal Father of the spirits of all men."

Joseph Smith taught, "While one portion of the human race is judging and condemning the other without mercy, the Great Parent of the universe looks upon the whole of the human family with a fatherly care and paternal regard."  President Ezra Taft Benson once said that, "Nothing is going to startle us more when we pass through the veil to the other side than to realize how well we know our Father and how familiar his face is to us." If His face is familiar to us, then surely our faces are perfectly familiar to Him who knows all that we have the privilege of calling Father!

The Savior also knows us intimately.  As Elder Neal A. Maxwell once said so well regarding Jesus: "He assisted in the creation and management not only of this planet, but other worlds. His grasp is galactic, yet he noticed the widow casting in her mite." Elder Maxwell also said, "Whether descriptively designated as Creator, Only Begotten Son, Prince of Peace, Advocate, Mediator, Son of God, Savior, Messiah, Author and Finisher of Salvation, King of Kings—I witness that Jesus Christ is the only name under heaven whereby one can be saved! ( D&C 18:23

I testify that He is utterly incomparable in what He is, what He knows, what He hasaccomplished, and what He has experienced. Yet, movingly, He calls us His friends." (See  John 15:15

I hope that we can all recognize more how much is done for us by our Heavenly Father, and thank Him as often as my daughter thanked me. What joy will surely fill our lives as we recognize the hand of God in our lives and find that joy in our journey!