Thanksgiving, when you don’t feel like it!

Can I be thankful 
when life is too complicated, 
when grief and the unexpected 
knock down my door?
When my emotions are raw, 
and I am misunderstood
can I be thankful?

Maybe it’s been a slow leak of dissatisfaction with layers of negative and complex emotions that have created an ungrateful spirit. Or perhaps a sudden and devastating blow has left me reeling. 

There is always something to be thankful for, even within the hard. The problem is that seeing the good for the bad is difficult when my eyes are focused on the negative.

Gratitude is more a matter of attitude than circumstance.

What I don’t seem to realize is that if I want to climb out of the rubble, I need to search for the gems of thanks as though my life depends on it. Those small gems will become the rungs that pull me up to a place where I can again realize the many ways God has blessed me. 

We must scramble after the bits of thanksgiving even when life doesn’t seem like an Instagram-worthy frame of cozy sweaters, golden-leafed trees and pumpkin patches. As we ponder what we might at first think of as a short list of thanks, we will be surprised at how it grows, for gratitude is more a matter of attitude than circumstance.

Could I turn a hard situation on its head with an attitude of thankfulness? Could my peace have been elusive because my thankfulness has been lacklustre?

Thanksgiving is the path back to God’s powerful peace.