Something in my computer inbox from several months ago by Max Lucado:

FIND A WAY TO GIVE THANKS

"God notices the grateful heart. He took a praise-singing shepherd boy and made him a king. There’s no hint of God getting out of sorts if we aren’t thankful, but there is evidence we’re affected by our own ingratitude. What of the disastrous days? The nights I can’t sleep and the hours I can’t rest. Are we still grateful then?

"Jesus was. The Bible records, 'On the night he was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took some bread and gave thanks to God for it' (1 Corinthians 11:23-24 NLT). It’s not often you see the words betrayed and thanks in the same sentence, much less in the same heart. In the midst of the darkest night of the human soul, Jesus found a way to give thanks. Anyone can thank God for the light. Jesus teaches us to thank God for the night. He says to us, 'you’ll get through this!; And we will."

  *

Being thankful, even when I am not, is something
I learned when our daughter Merry was sick before she died.
From Thanksgiving until July1999, she needed surgery five times to repair her shunt.
# 4 was July 8!
We were called the evening of July 9.
She was sick and was going to need surgery #5
the next day.
Could we come back to the hospital?
As I was gathering some things to go,
I wasn't saying this prayer aloud, but rattling in my head, I was saying
, "God, I don't want to do this!"
And it seemed He said to me,
"Tell Me thank you!"

Thank you!!??
"I don't want to do this!"
And it seemed He said to me,
"I never said you have to like it!"

Must be what it means in 1 Thessalonians 5:18 which says, "Always be thankful."
I started thanking God for doctors, surgeries,
things that made Merry 'better'.

Something happens to us when we tell God,
"Thank You",
even for things we can't stand which happens to us!
It improves our mental and spiritual health; maybe even our physical health!
Some of my prayers are,
"God, you know I don't like this one bit,
but thank You for.........."

***