Dear friend,
Praise the LORD, my soul, and don’t forget all his benefits, who forgives all your sins, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from destruction, who crowns you with loving kindness and tender mercies, who satisfies your desire with good things, so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.
So this week I keep noticing what I actually feel instead of what I think I'm supposed to feel, and the thing sitting on top is gratitude. Which almost embarrasses me to say. I'm used to writing you when something's cracked open and hurting. This is different. Nothing's wrong. My daughter fell asleep on my shoulder in the car on Tuesday and I sat in the driveway for ten extra minutes just to keep it going, and I felt this thing that was too plain to be joy and too warm to be relief. Gratitude, I guess. I almost didn't trust it.
I was in Psalm 103 this week, the part where it lists what God does, like it's an actual inventory. Forgives, heals, redeems. Not vague. Specific verbs for specific things. It made me wonder if my gratitude has been too foggy lately, too much a general good mood instead of naming what it's actually for.
I don't want to hand you a lesson today. I just want to ask you something honest. What is the one specific thing you're grateful for right now, not the big category, the actual thing?
A prayer
God, thank You for the plain, specific gifts we forget to name. Sharpen her gratitude today so it lands on something real, not just a feeling passing through. Amen.