Grateful. If anything in this life can make it better, being grateful is number one. If you can’t be thankful for what you have, then sadly you may be stuck.

Let me give you a prime example. Finances could not be worse. Relationships are in the toilet, you’re about to lose everything. I mean everything. Life looks hopeless. Every turn is some new problem, nothing is getting better. What do you have to be grateful for if life seems like it’s flushing you down the toilet?

• Health, if reasonably healthy then indeed you are blessed. If you don’t believe that tell it to someone that has just been diagnosed with terminal cancer. Ask them if health is not everything.

• The ability to work. If you can stand upright, you have a body that functions you can accomplish. This is something to be grateful for.

• Children healthy? That is a real gift.

• Supportive spouse. A right partner is a beautiful blessing.

• A car that runs to get you to work. A bus that is close to getting you to work.

If you look closely enough, we all have things to put the gratitude in our hearts. Without it, you will stifle your growth. With it, God will enrich your life. I see it every day in my own life. When I live in gratitude, things happen for me out of the blue. A small break here, a significant break there. At the end of the day, I feel stronger. The trials in my life may still be there, but every day, I take a bite out of them.

The key is to be grateful for even the smallest blessing. How can God bless your life if you don’t thank him for yet the most minor benefit? It’s still a blessing. I received $16 in cash from the post office for a PO box I had. I owe thousands of dollars I could have looked at this a couple of ways. I chose to be excited it was something I was not expecting, out of the blue favor from God.

Today if God saw fit to bless me with a penny, I would be just as excited if he saw fit to bestow me with a thousand dollars. Be grateful for the smallest things, then God can bless you with the big stuff. It has to be genuine, though. Don’t be smarty pants and say, “Oh look a penny.” Be seeded in faith and gratitude.

This is an area that I struggle as well. Everything you read from successful people is grateful for what you have. Look around you. We all have things to be thankful for. Blessings come disguised as a smile from a complete stranger, someone allows you in front of them, you can breathe, your health, I could list hundreds more.

Don’t let yourself get caught up in a whirlwind of garbage to the point you forget to be grateful. Blessings could be just around the bend if you stop and just say thank you. Even when finding anything to be thankful for seems distant or hopeless.

Try! I will pray for anyone reading this that you find one small blessing in your life, that being grateful for the most minor of benefits will open the door for God to do amazing things in your life.