{"id":13701,"date":"2021-11-05T22:06:49","date_gmt":"2021-11-06T06:06:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lightbearers.org\/blog\/?p=13701"},"modified":"2026-03-10T18:12:01","modified_gmt":"2026-03-10T22:12:01","slug":"grief-and-gratitude","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lightbearers.org\/blog\/grief-and-gratitude\/","title":{"rendered":"Grief and Gratitude"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>\u201cGratitude exclaims, very properly, \u2018How good of God to give me this.\u2019\u201d \u2014C.S. Lewis<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Twelve years ago, I lost my wife to breast cancer. It was by far the most difficult thing I\u2019ve ever experienced.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>All of us sustain losses. The pandemic has reminded us of this sad truth. I\u2019m sure you\u2019ve lost something, too, whether it\u2019s a loved one, your health, a job, a friendship, or a dream of the future. That\u2019s why I\u2019d like to share a simple tool with you that helped me deal with my loss. &nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When I was deeply grieving the loss of my wife, my aunt encouraged me to do a gratitude challenge. To be honest, it was the last thing I wanted to do. But I decided to do it anyway.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Each day for a week, I wrote down ten new things I was grateful for. Next, I wrote ten sentences explaining why I was grateful for each thing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For example, I wrote things like:&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Eyes. <em>Thank you, Lord, for my eyes because they allow me to see color and the faces of people I love.<\/em>&nbsp;<\/li><li>Toothbrush. <em>Thank you, Lord, for my toothbrush because it helps my mouth to feel fresh and clean.&nbsp;<\/em><\/li><li><em>Phone. Thank you, Lord, for my phone. It enables me to stay connected with other people during this difficult time.&nbsp;<\/em><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>As I wrote down my blessings, I also tried to think of what life would be like if any of those things were missing. At first, it was hard for me to identify things I was grateful for. But as the week went on, it became easier. Gratitude is like a muscle. It strengthens with practice. By the end of the week, I had a list of 70 blessings\u2014things I had taken for granted. Of course, I was still deeply grieving my loss, but I found comfort focusing on the blessings I still had.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Gratitude makes us more content. Contentment is good for both our health and our relationships. As one wise person put it: \u201cGratitude turns what we have into enough.\u201d That\u2019s why the Bible encourages us to \u201cgive thanks in all circumstances\u201d (1 Thessalonians 5:18, NIV). Gratitude helped me get through my loss and I know it can help you too. So why not start the gratitude challenge today?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Frank M. Hasel, PhD, is associate director of the Biblical Research Institute. This devotional is an excerpt from his recent book: <em>Living for God: Reclaiming the Joy of Christian Virtue<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cGratitude exclaims, very properly, \u2018How good of God to give me this.\u2019\u201d \u2014C.S. Lewis Twelve years ago, I lost my wife to&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13708,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13701","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-article"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lightbearers.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/Grief-and-Gratitude.jpg?fit=2560%2C1440&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paAh8r-3yZ","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lightbearers.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13701","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lightbearers.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lightbearers.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lightbearers.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lightbearers.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13701"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/lightbearers.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13701\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15493,"href":"https:\/\/lightbearers.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13701\/revisions\/15493"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lightbearers.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13708"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lightbearers.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13701"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lightbearers.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13701"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lightbearers.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13701"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}