gratitude. . .it's personal

I came home to Texas thinking a lot about gratitude. . . grateful for my weeks in New York, for family and a sweet new granddaughter, for mounds of snow and ice encrusted fir trees, for deep conversations and tea time by a dancing fire, and much much more.
But mainly, my mind  fixated on gratitude because I was set to teach the woman at my church. . .

What does it mean to embrace a lifestyle of gratitude? why does gratitude matter?
I'd been preparing for months. . . If I get to teach, then I'd better be ready! But still I wrestled with how to teach about choosing gratitude when it's really hard- to teach truth with compassion. So, in the end, I decided to make it personal and last Monday I shared  this-

Sometimes we limit our thanksgiving to things that look good to us- even when we know that giving thanks in and for all things is God's good will for his children (I Thessalonians 5:18, Ephesians 5:20).  We live in a broken world and experience hardships, sufferings, miseries and there are times when it's almost impossible to express gratitude to God.
 It's in those times we "offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving and call upon the name of the Lord," (Psalm 116:17)
 The sacrifice is costly, it's a sacrifice of faith to "the Giver".

 I say, "Lord, I trust you based on your promises, based on who you've proven to be for me, based on truth that you do all things for my good- and I give you thanks.

In the past year I've faced the challenge to offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving to the Lord amid a painful circumstance- I admit it's hard. But I remember that my sacrifice of thanksgiving honors him and He is worthy. I remind myself that gratitude is good for me- if I don't offer a sacrifice when it's hard, I grow bitter, resentful, cold towards God.

And here it is. . .I don't want to be a hard, bitter old woman! I want to be gracious and sweet and tender towards the Good Shepherd to the end. Perhaps that's the path God is carving in my heart as I plant a seed of faith and offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving to the Lord. A dear friend shared this observation:

I found myself being challenged. . .was I being thankful in my circumstances because they were smooth at the moment or because of who Christ is? Can I be just as thankful if the road is rocky? It is easy to be thankful when things are going our way but thankfulness makes the rough road so much more delightful. I wish I could be there. . .

(Ahh, me too sweet friend-and thanks for that)