My husbands feet chase my son in the background, the television is blaring, and my house is a wreck. There are toys littering the floor, dirty clothes piled to the ceiling, and my son has been sick for six days now. I am thirty seconds away from losing my composure when a voice out of nowhere calls out to me saying, “Give thanks for it all!”

What?! You mean I’m supposed to be thankful for a never ending cycle of dirty dishes and sticky floors? I’m supposed to thank Him for the weeds in my yard and the fact that my son is sick the week of Thanksgiving? Just when I start to feel like there is nothing to give thanks for at this very moment, God reminds me that there is always, always something to be thankful for.

I have learned over the course of my life that being thankful is a choice you have to make. You must choose to wake up and be grateful for each thing your day will bring–the good and the bad. Savor the happy moments and cherish them. Embrace the bad ones and learn from them. Sometimes learning to be thankful takes patience and a whole lot of grace. But it is a humbling experience knowing that the very things we often take for granted are the same things most prayed for by someone else. Someone out there prays they could be in your shoes. Someone somewhere wishes they had the life that you are currently living.

Right now, at this very moment, there is a mother praying for one more day with her terminally ill child. My son has a cold and with a good round of antibiotics he will thankfully be well in a few days. There is a man out there with filthy clothes that is battling the cold, bitter wind. I am thankful for the mountain of laundry staring me in the face. There is a child out there who won’t receive a toy under a brightly lit tree this year. I am thankful for the many numerous toys I trip over. There are millions of people who will go to sleep hungry tonight, yet, I am thankful I am able to provide my family with a warm and filling meal.

I once read a quote that said, “What if you woke up today with only the things you thanked God for yesterday?” Sadly, if this were the case many of us would wake with very little. I am grateful that the Lord allows us a new chance to get it right everyday. What a loving and gracious Creator we serve! The more we learn to be thankful and content with what we have, the more he blesses us with. It is right to give our thanks and praise! Today, I will count my blessings and enjoy this journey I am on!