“Gratitude, like a fresh, brisk wind, draws me back to the truth and sets me and my small life in the greater context of God’s person and purposes. Gratitude prepares me for soul searching under God’s guidance and direction, not my own. Each day is a gift. There is a significant “Other,” a giver and lover of my soul.
Sometimes it’s easy to look back on a given day with gratitude. Just pausing to reflect brings to mind various blessings, conversations or “coincidences” that would otherwise have been lost to history. It feels natural to remember to acknowledge, to look back and say, “This is a day the Lord made, I will rejoice and be glad in it!”
At other times, though, choosing gratitude is an act of faith. In particularly painful or confusing season of life, gratitude dries up. Even then God is with us. “Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil,” claims the psalmist. Why? Because there is no real threat? No. “For you are with me” (Psalm 23:4). God’s presence really did accompany you throughout the day–as threatening or evil as the day may have been–whether you realized it or not. Perhaps just that assurance will form the foundation of your gratitude today.”
Mindy Caliguire in Soul Searching (Downers Grove: IVP) 45.