A prayer of thanksgiving

Master of the World, I did not come today to ask. I came to give thanks. So many times I turned to You when I was in distress, and described in detail what I was missing. And now, when I have, I want to stop and say it out loud: I have seen Your kindness.

I thank You for the great thing that happened, the thing I prayed and pleaded for. And I thank You also for the small things I hardly see: for water running from the tap, for food in the refrigerator, for one person who answered my call when I needed it, for the body that does its work quietly without my noticing.

And there are also things that hurt me at the time, and only looking back do I understand how much good was in them. A door that closed, and because of it I reached another place. A refusal that protected me without my knowing. For these too I give thanks, though back then I did not know how to.

Do not let this thanks remain only words. If You have given to me, help me give onward, share the good with others, and remember this moment even on the day I again feel that something is missing. Give me a heart that knows how to notice.

And I have one more request within the thanks: that I not wait for the next miracle to give thanks again. Let me open each day with one word of gratitude, and close it with one more. For a heart that gives thanks is a joyful heart, and a joyful heart can carry even the hard days.