Father, I want to stop and thank You. Not because everything is easy right now, but because You are good, and Your mercy has not run out on me. So often I come to You with a list of needs. Today I come with a list of thanks.
Thank You for this morning's light through the kitchen window. Thank You for hot water, a full refrigerator, a car that started. Thank You for the friend who called at just the right time, for the child who hugged me without being asked, for the stranger who held the door.
Thank You for the harder gifts too: the closed door that protected me, the season of waiting that taught me patience, the loss that made me hold people more tenderly. I do not understand all of it, but I trust that You were working even there.
Most of all, thank You for Jesus, for forgiveness I did not earn and a love I cannot lose. Give me eyes to notice Your kindness all day long, and a heart that says thank You before it says please. Let my gratitude spill over into how I treat the people around me. In Jesus' name, Amen.
“O give thanks unto the LORD, for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever.”
Psalm 107:1 (KJV)