Do you live so caught up in your past that it affects your present? Are you so dissatisfied with your current circumstances that you live solely for the hope of tomorrow and completely disregard the gift of today? Those who don’t learn how to live for today will miss the blessings directly in front of them.

No matter how despairing circumstances may look, you have the opportunity to cultivate a heart of thankfulness. This posture of the heart creates a constant awareness of the goodness of God. It brings life and light to the darkest of nights, and pulls out praise from the depths of your being.

A grateful heart can see every blessing in front of it, and always chooses to hope. The ability to bless God in every season of the soul is one of the greatest character-forming actions because it calls you to look upward and see with eyes of faith.

To be able to say with the hymn writer, “It is well with my soul” when you’re surrounded by storms is the true maturation of unwavering trust in God. In this place, you’ll find joy that supersedes the struggle of the soul and comes up leaning on the Everlasting One.

Today, give thanks for what God has given you in this season of life.

“I will make peace flow to her like a river” (Isa. 66:12).