Gratitude without Comparison

Our society seems to push gratitude in a context of comparison:
Thank you for my health (that I'm not sick like that person over there)
Thank you for my family (that I'm not alone like that person)
Thank you for my home (that I'm not like that homeless person there)
Thank you for food to eat (that I'm not starving like those children in Africa)

We see others that we judge to be less fortunate than us and use that as an opportunity to feel grateful.  What happens though, when your world falls apart and you find fewer and fewer people fall into that "less fortunate" category?  How do you still find gratitude in your heart when your world is crumbling apart?  How does Job find gratefulness in the absence of health, family, and material possessions?

Perhaps we need a mind shift away from the "I'm so thankful I'm not like that person" to a place of genuine gratitude for the good and the bad and the way those together have formed our life.  Wesley's birth, and subsequent disability, was not my plan.  I didn't end up with the birth I wanted nor with a healthy baby.  I could say, "I'm so grateful he survived" which has definite truth to it, but what about the family whose baby didn't survive, what do they have to be thankful for?  True gratitude that can withstand the most challenging and heartbreaking situations imaginable, comes from an acknowledgement that there is a higher purpose in all of this.  That the messy threads of our life are being woven together by a masterful Artist who sees the whole picture not our limited perspective.

So today, even when it doesn't feel true, I choose to say:
Thank you for seizures
Thank you for cerebral palsy
Thank you for sickness
Thank you for suffering
Thank you for chaos
Thank you for isolation

Because the gratitude in my heart shapes my attitude towards my life.  I can't change the circumstances but I can change my attitude towards them.

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