Gratitude During Seasons of Stress—A Choice and a Weapon

Before I begin, I want to tell each of you how thankful I am for you. Thank you for subscribing, for reading this blog, and for your sweet support. You encourage this writer’s heart, and I hope I can encourage you, as well.

Thanksgiving season is such a gift. It’s a time to reflect and remember, to count our blessings and not our lacking. Introspection leads to outward praise.

It’s easy to feel thankful when life is going smoothly, but what about in times of prolonged stress or disappointment? When you feel like a hamster in a wheel, on a mad dash to nowhere? When you’ve worked and sacrificed, but you cannot see the finish line? Maybe you begin to wonder if there even is a finish line.

Stress is a sneaky monster. It leaves us heavy and on edge, and blocks the view of our blessings, inch by inch, until stress is all we can see.

I know this too well.

Yet, even in the midst of it, we can find reasons to be thankful and evidence that God is walking through it with us. We can have confidence that he will honor His word to us.

Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good. His steadfast love endures forever. – Psalm 136:1

So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. – 2 Corinthians 4:18

God is our safe place and our strength. He is always our help when we are in trouble. So we will not be afraid even if the earth is shaken and the mountains fall into the center of the sea, and even if is waters go wild with storm and the mountains shake with its action… be still and know that I am God. – Psalm 46:1-3, 10

When God tells us to be still, He is inviting us into rest with Him, to allow ourselves to calm and trust Him with our troubles. We have promises, but how can we practically apply that to our situation?

There are many strategies for finding gratitude during stressful times. In this short post today, I’d like to encourage you with a practical exercise that has worked for me. Right now, I am the hamster in a wheel. Some days, it’s all I can do to keep my head above water, and if I am not careful, I will transform into a grump. This meditative exercise helps ground me and keep my focus where it should be—off myself.

First, commit to finding three things in this very moment that you are thankful for. Visualize them. Name them aloud in prayer or write them in a journal.

Next, think of three people you are especially thankful for and tell them why you are thankful for them.

Then—and this is the hardest—think of three blessings in your current stressful situation. It can be something you are learning, experiences you wouldn’t have otherwise, or a deeper understanding of your dependence on God. There is always something there, but to see the blessings through the stress and anxiety, we must intentionally seek them and name them.

Perhaps then, we can see God at work in it more clearly.

Gratitude brings us peace, helps us focus, and reveals purpose. Gratitude is not only necessary for wholeness and holiness, but it is the ultimate weapon against discontent, withering it against the view of the One who holds everything in His hands.

While we cannot always control the challenges and burdens of our lives, we do have a way to see beyond them, through the lens of gratitude. I am thankful that stressful seasons are just that—seasons, and seasons pass.

May your Thanksgiving be peaceful and full of joy, and may you feel the love of the God who cares for us beyond our comprehension.

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