What are you thankful for?
Is it your dog, cat, or home? Is it your friends? Family? Are you thankful to be alive?
What are you not thankful for? The worldly drama? Your siblings? Your personal problems?
... But should you be thankful for them?
My life has recently been a struggle: I am just ending my junior year of college; the semester is halfway over. My start has been rocky. I mean, REALLY rocky. Change of insurances, new medicines for my wife, new doctors, having to meet them in person, job-related news seeming... poor, for lack of a less family-friendly term, and school starting midweek with a lot of courses missing material or having seemingly disrespectful instructors. First-world problems, am I right? All while trying to find internships and entry-level jobs for web development (basically scams, scams, and more fake jobs).
Normally, one would be spiteful, harboring animosity towards those avenues, those stressors, but that changed for me when I realized a different perspective: empathy is best realized in two directions.
Empathy in two directions?
Empathy can be described as "putting yourself in someone else's shoes." You know there are people around you who are struggling, right? I assume you responded to that with a "yes."
What would be the other direction, then? Simply put them in your shoes! How would you observe them? How would you think they would feel in your predicament? And, how can you remain objective while remaining aware of your emotions in this figurative position?
I really only want to focus on the first two points, as the third is more of a personal realization.
I was reading from the scriptures of Matthew 26:26-29, where we can know of the first Sacrament being passed between Jesus Christ and His disciples during the passover celebration. I was asked to use some study skills to better understand these passages, and substituting myself in with "the disciples" when I read he was passing the broken bread has allowed me to realize more personally of His atoning sacrifice. His love is hard to describe, but the best I can describe now is that it is so complete, so full, that a simple act, yet so personal, so understanding of our faults and fears, our struggles... oh, the tears! I could observe the other disciples feeling awe and extreme love for the Savior, as I felt it then in my mind.
Then I imagined what they would feel in my shoes.
First, the struggles of daily life would have almost been mute, but they would have remained significant. Realizing this, I would not be able to grow to who I am today, let alone who I aim to be, if not for these trials and tribulations. I would not be as loving towards my wife, my family. I would be less grateful for the blessings that came from those problems: I wouldn't have met my friends, gained a social presence, or a love for helping people. I wouldn't feel accomplished despite the greater odds. I know those disciples would have felt happy, knowing what they did with Jesus there. Feeling this — oh, what's the word? Grace? Compassion? Love? — coming from this scenario has helped me feel grateful for the lessons they have taught me.