Having a sincerely grateful attitude is a powerful thing. When the storms of life hit, a grateful attitude helps you maintain a peaceful soul and retain the ability to hear from God. On days like today when I am depressed and I am up at 2am, I do my best to remember what I have to be grateful for. I have to dig deep and be grateful to be alive, able to see, hear, walk. My mind is really stressed during these times, so it is really important to me to be able to hear from God. I fight to minimize the strife in my soul. Some people write down what they are grateful for when things are going well, and it is easy to be grateful. Then when things get rough, they can read from their list. I try to make my list when I am having a hard time. My gratitude seems to be more powerful that way. Mostly I am grateful to God. For being there for me, even though I wasn’t listening, when I was making bad choices and really screwing my life up. And being here for me now, when I am capable of making better choices despite being depressed. I’m still alive and have the love of God, my family and other people in my life.

I have lived the alternative. Most of my life I have been ungrateful, angry and full of strife. This impeded my ability to hear from God and frankly, I didn’t want to hear from Him. This attitude made my depression worse and I made bad, impulsive choices that I thought would make me feel better if even for a little while. I was so wrong. This attitude was almost deadly for me.

I know there are people who doubt the power of gratitude. To them I say try it, put God to the test. You just might be surprised by the outcome.