By: Allison Brost
How do we live grateful lives in any practical sense?
I think that’s the question that baffled me after walking through losing my son.
I knew I didn’t want to live bitter. I truly did want to become better—to grow stronger, have deeper faith, to truly make a difference and have an impact on the world.
But how do you do that when all around you’re surrounded by the things that are hard? When life just hasn’t turned out like you’d expected? When all it seems you see are the burdens and struggles and general brokenness of life in a fallen world?
And I think the answer is this: we give thanks.
It struck me only a few days after losing my son. I was sitting on the carpeted floor in my in-law’s living room, kneeled over on the floor to change my two-year-old’s diaper when it dawned on me: thankfulness.
In all the chaos and the heartache and the heavy feelings of grief—I still had this. A little boy who needed me. A family who pitched in to help take care of our other children. A church family who stepped up to provide groceries and meals and the mailed reminder that they were praying and available for whatever else we might need.
In the midst of it all, we still had an abundance of reasons to give thanks.
Now I’m not for a moment saying I always feel grateful. And I don’t think God is asking that of you, either. The reality is there are some seasons of life that are just downright difficult and next to impossible to see any good out of.
And yet I believe it’s here that God is inviting us to live in the truth of his words through the faithful act of giving him thanks.
Psalm 136:1 reminds us, “Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever.”
Friend, we get to live in the truth of the promise that our God is good, He is faithful—even when it may seem about the furthest thing from what we’re experiencing—through the sacrifice of thanksgiving.
I don’t know what kind of hard realities you’re faced with today or this upcoming holiday season, but I pray that right in the center of it all you would do the most courageous thing of all: give thanks. Praise him in advance, trusting that he really is working all things together for good in your life.
God is faithful. He is good. He is present.
Gratitude just lets you live in the truths God’s already given.
Dear Lord, I pray that you would help me to see the gifts. In the middle of the mundane and the ordinary and even the downright hard, I pray I wouldn’t miss them. You’ve surrounded me with gifts, everyday graces from the breath I breathe when I greet a new day to the faithful promises I get to live in.
Open my eyes to see it. Transform my heart to believe it. Use all of this to mold me and shape me and make me into a person who truly does live grace-filled and grateful. In a world that gives me so many examples of its brokenness, help me instead shine out your goodness through a growing grateful heart that points others to the hope I’ve found in you. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Dig Deeper
Reflection Questions:
What areas of your life have you struggled to give thanks?
How can you surrender these spaces, trusting that God is still working good on your behalf?
How can viewing gratitude as a gift transform thankfulness in your own heart?
Further Reading:
Luke 17:11-19
How can thanksgiving in your own life move you beyond simply healing, into wholeness?
Verse to Meditate On:
Psalm 100:4-5
Colossians 3:17
Philippians 4:6-7
Allison Brost is the author of “Grateful: 30 Days of Growing in Thankfulness” (The Good Book Company, February 2025) and an independent singer/songwriter from Janesville, WI. She loves to share daily encouragement online for those journeying in their faith at This Side of Perfect. Her passion is to share words of hope—through both books and song—that can point people to Jesus and uplift the church. When she’s not busy homeschooling her kids or leading worship, you can find her sitting outside, most likely with a cup of tea in hand.
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