By Lois Hewitt

Gratitude. There is a lot of discussion about gratitude these days. Being grateful is proven to decrease anxiety.  Being grateful improves overall health and so much more.

It is easy to be generically thankful.  I find my nightly prayer thanking God for shelter, food, clothes, job, etc.  The problem is its always the same.  Although those are the things that impact my life on a daily basis, there is so much more that I tend to leave off the list.

I’m also thankful for family, friends, good books, pleasant weather, safe travels, and a hundred other things I hardly ever verbalize.

What about the things you can’t see, hear, touch, feel or smell?

Like mercy and forgiveness. When Jesus walked this earth, His message was one of salvation through His blood.  And eternal life with Him and with the Father.

What about love and justice?  He spoke about loving your enemies and those who persecute you. 

What about grace?  The idea that God’s favor shines on me and I did absolutely nothing to merit it.

What about the difficult times, do they deserve gratitude?  Yes, they do.  The difficult times create in us a strong and deep dependence on God. Those times forge our character and give strength to our resolve.  They make us who we are.

Today’s world may not highly value integrity and character. Doing the right thing, for some, is subjective by the standards of today.  Some may even think character is an antiquated frame of mind.

I am sorry for them because those characteristics are the threads that bind a society and that make humans humane.  I am thankful for such things.

Today I am thankful for the comforts I enjoy but I am also thankful for the discomfort and the things that bring hurting for I know that every step through the fire brings me one step closer to being who I am meant to be.

My goal, although unattainable, is to be more like Jesus. What an example of perfection we have in Him.  I am thankful for all of His provisions for me, but also for the example He left us.  Not everyone will understand but that’s ok.  I want to please Him as I try to make my little moment in time a better place. That is where my true gratitude should fall.