There is always plenty of things to be grateful for. We have a place to stay, food to eat, friends and families to be with. This litany of blessing is very long and probably during our life times we would not be able to finish it. But it is also important to be thankful for the things that we do not have, even if we asked for them.
It is not always easy to be thankful for the difficulties in our life. From our human perspective we prefer to complain about them. Why would we be grateful for cancer or the death of somebody from the family. Is it possible to find appreciation for it?
I know that this is a challenge. From our small perspective every time we lose something or somebody, we think that it is a tragedy. Many people have a difficult time dealing with it. More and more our brothers and sisters are looking for help from therapists and psychoanalysts. We cannot face obstacles anymore. Everything has to work for us. Unfortunately reality doesn't care what we think and what we want.
If we would grow in thankfulness for difficulties, many things would change and would make our life much more joyful and happy. Only through faith can we find out that "bad things" make us who we are and are necessary for our spiritual growth. By facing difficulties we appreciate all of our blessings. A car accident often helps us to realize how fragile our life is, having rain for ten days helps us to look for the sunshine, going through the illness helps us respect our health.
Yes, we build our character through difficulties. So this Thanksgiving I would like to ask you to be thankful to God for all the difficult moments you had to face since last year. Do not complain about them but be thankful. You made it through them not because you are so great but because in these moments God worked so hard with you to help you to manage and find solutions.
Happy and blessed Thanksgiving to all of you.