One of the greatest gifts my mother ever gave me wasn’t something she could wrap in a box.
It was a habit.
She had learned to notice the small mercies of God tucked into ordinary days, and she thanked Him for them without hesitation.
Watching her taught me that gratitude isn’t reserved for life’s mountaintop moments. It grows quietly in the commonplace.
That lesson has carried me through some of the heaviest seasons of my life.
If we’re being real, most of us can admit we don’t wake up and thank God for our chronic pain, the estrangement of a child, or financial strain.
But we can tell our souls to “be still.” We can turn our hearts to God in our despair and say— nevertheless, yet will I praise You. And we can hold on to Him when He seems silent, or even uncaring.
We don’t need to be ashamed for feeling like God has left us. Our ancestors of old felt that way many times, and penned their despair.
God knows our thoughts and feelings. He knows we are made of dust. And His mercy is beyond our comprehension.
“Yet he, being compassionate, atoned for their iniquity and did not destroy them; he restrained his anger often and did not stir up all his wrath. He remembered that they were but flesh, a wind that passes and comes not again.”
Psalm 78:38-39 ESV
But gratitude does not mean we can’t ask Him for relief. You can bet I ask Him for relief on a daily basis!
Our Heavenly Father invites His children to cry out to Him.
Sometimes He brings quick answers. Other times, the trial lingers for reasons only He fully understands, accomplishing purposes for our good and His glory.
Even then, there is so much for which to give thanks.
Every day I ask God to heal the rift between us and one of our children. As I pray, He gently reminds me to be still and know that He is God.
So I write another line on my Grateful List:
“Lord, thank You that our child and grandchildren are in Your hands, and You love them even more than we do.”
Daily, I ask Him to ease my continual spinal pain. Sometimes I honestly pray, “Please don’t let me live to be ninety. I truly don’t think I could bear that many more years of hurting.”
Then He reminds me that my life belongs to Him, and to my husband and loved ones.
I ask instead for the grace to walk faithfully through today, even when I hurt.
And I write another line:
“Lord, thank You that I can still walk, still sing, still write, and still serve the people I love.”
The apostle Paul wrote:
“For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.”
—2 Corinthians 4:17–18 (ESV)
My Grateful List continues to grow.
I thank God for thirty-eight years of faithfulness in my marriage and for the deep friendship my husband and I now enjoy.
I thank Him for wonderful relationships with our other five children and their precious families.
I thank Him for faithful friends who encourage me, make me laugh, and remind me of God’s goodness.
I thank Him for healthy food, for a roof over our heads, for our cats, for air conditioning on hot Florida days, and for the privilege of living near the beach.
There are new gifts to notice every single day.
And as we practice gratitude, we’ll even become more creative with the blessings we notice.
Just as we learn to know the Lord more deeply, practice His presence, and trust Him in suffering, gratitude is something we can ask Him to cultivate within us.
What begins as a spiritual discipline slowly becomes a way of seeing.
And before long, it becomes a love song between our hearts and our gracious Heavenly Father.
He truly is the Giver of every good gift.
May He give us eyes to notice them.