Finding Gratitude in the Good and Bad Days

Today, I am at a loss of words. A lot of things have been going on in my life lately and I simply just don't know what to talk about. The only thing that honestly comes to my mind right now is how grateful I am for everything that has happened in my life up until now. Yes, not everyday is sunshine and rainbows, but I still have a lot to be thankful for. I guess today I will write about gratitude and giving thanks to the most high, Jesus Christ.

I think we all can get so caught up in life and sometimes forget how truly blessed we are. I am guilty of that act. I have been through a lot in life. When I was young I lost my mom to breast cancer, I've been through romantic and platonic heartbreaks, I am not exactly where I thought I'd be five years ago, and the worst thing of all, my negative thoughts can sometimes be my biggest enemy.

Life is not easy. There is no denying that. However, life can also be really interesting and beautiful and sometimes I can't do anything else but smile at the fact that I am still here and alive. Without the death of my mother I would've been introduced to the acts of love and the concept of grief much later in life. And without knowing grief, I would not have been able to recover as smoothly from past relationship breakups, romantic and platonic. The feeling of uncertainty in regards to my future would've overwhelmed me had I not been hit with the reality that not everything will go as you planned. And most importantly, I would've never learned to be kinder to myself if I hadn't experienced my seasons of self-doubt and sadness.

The craziest part about all of those negative events in my life is that they could occur again in some other way, shape, or form. Obviously, I am not referring to the permanent things like life and death, but the emotions I felt in all of those events could be felt again.

With all of that in mind, I've learned to be more appreciative of the good and the bad things in life. There is a movie that perfectly explains this concept that I am trying to touch on. That movie is Pixar's Inside Out. All throughout the movie the character, also representing the emotion, Sadness, felt as if she was not important and unnecessary. Because of her false belief she was always in a depressed state.

By the end of the movie, Sadness learned that she was just as important as the other emotions because without the core memories that she created for Riley, the main character; Riley would have never learned to appreciate the experiences she's had and the loved ones in her life.

Without bad days, we wouldn't learn vital lessons and the good ones would lose its value. I am thankful for the bad days just as much as I am for the good ones.

This summer I have experienced a lot and had a ton of fun. Not everyday was great, but I still woke up. I was fed. I have a place to stay, to wash my body and sleep. I have clothes on my back. I know for a fact that life could be even more difficult, so I thank God for all of the things he has blessed me with, including the little things. And I especially thank Him for the days that seemed to make me feel like the world was against me.

I believe that God has a plan perfectly made for me. Within that plan there may be some bad days, but I know that the end-goal of his plan is good. Therefore, I chose to be thankful for every detail that comes along with the plan that he made specifically for me.

Having gratitude everyday definitely helps during the bad events of life. When things go south and you have no control of making it right, we can either choose to be hateful or grateful. It may seem hard to have gratitude when times are tough, but I believe that is what God wants us to do.

We are to let go of our worries, focus on Him and his kingdom, and let him work everything out. Keeping that in mind bring comforts to my soul. I stress less, I worry less, I focus on the things that I can control, and I work hard on them.

I want to encourage my readers to persevere when times get tough. Pain is only temporary and it is also the greatest teacher. Like in the movie, Inside Out, with the help of Sadness, Riley was able to find value in her most painful memories. And in doing so, she was able to find herself again and appreciate the loved ones around her.

Our experiences, good or bad, develop us into the person that we are meant to be. That is why I am grateful for them. God made me for a reason. I have purpose because of Him. The only thing I can do is thank Him.

Thank you, Lord.

I hope you all found some value in this post today and have been enjoying reading the other ones as much as I have been loving writing them. Please reach out to me if you ever just feel the urge to. I would love to talk about anything, whether it's pertaining to a blog post or other things that I do. And as always, thank you for spending some time to read my blog.

Until next time.

Jefferson K. Coe