Kays Ward

2025 Theme:  Be in the Book of Mormon

Bishopric Message - November 2026

By Brad Gibbs

Thanksgiving

This month we celebrate Thanksgiving. We have so much to be thankful for. In 1863, Abraham Lincoln sent out a proclamation setting aside the fourth Thursday in

November as a National Day of Thanksgiving and praise. In it, Lincoln thanked God for “fruitful fields and healthful skies” and for the preservation of peace during the Civil War, despite the nation’s “national perverseness and disobedience.”

The Proclamation includes: “I . . . commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners, or sufferers . . . and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty hand to heal the wounds of the nation, and to restore it . . . to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility, and union.”

President Gordon B. Hinckley said, “When you walk with gratitude, you do not walk with arrogance and conceit and egotism, you walk with a spirit of thanksgiving that is becoming to you and will bless your lives.” Gratitude is a divine principle. The Lord declared through a revelation given to the Prophet Joseph Smith:

“Thou shalt thank the Lord thy God in all things. “And in nothing doth man offend God, or against none is his wrath kindled, save those who confess not his hand in all things.”

In the Book of Mormon, we are told to “live in thanksgiving daily, for the many mercies and blessings which [God] doth bestow upon you.” (Alma 34:38)

This is a wonderful time to be on earth. While there is much that is wrong in the world today, there are many things that are right and good.

In our worship and giving thanks this month let us remember our Savior Jesus Christ. He is the Creator, Redeemer, and He makes it possible for all of us to return home and live with Him and our Father again.

Returning to Abraham Lincoln: "I have been driven many times upon my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere else to go. My own wisdom, and that of all about me, seemed insufficient for the day."

“But the Lord knoweth all things from the beginning; wherefore, he prepareth a way to accomplish all his works among the children of men; for behold, he hath all power unto the fulfilling of all his words. And thus it is. Amen.” (1 Nephi 9:6)

Let us remember all of our blessings, covenants, prophets, temple, family, friends, scriptures (Book of Mormon), and our Lord, Jesus Christ.

-Brother Gibbs