Top 10 Gratitude Stories on Begin Within

Begin Within: A Gratitude Series exists to help you cultivate year-round, ripple-effect gratitude. Enjoy a quick break from our regular stories to revisit your favorites from the past few years. Here are the top ten most viewed stories on Begin Within.

Top 10 Countdown

#10

I opened the cabinet to get the sugar where it had been kept for the past three decades and the cabinet was empty. I tried another and it was empty too. And another, also empty. The ground beneath me literally felt like it was moving. Everything had changed too fast. It all felt completely out of my control.

We were cleaning out my childhood home, getting it ready to sell, and letting go of the only house I grew up in felt like giving up the very last thing that felt familiar. It wasn’t just a storm that came through my life, it felt like hurricane after hurricane.

In 2018, I found myself in a place I never thought I would. Alcohol was wreaking havoc on my family. Then the unthinkable happened. My husband had a wreck and the driver of the motorcycle was killed . . . a DUI causing death. This left me a single parent and 100 percent responsible for everything for several years.

I thought the storm had passed and then 2020 happened—and I do not mean the pandemic.

#9

As soon as we pulled into the school’s driveway, I knew something wasn’t right. Usually filled with cars and suffused with the frenetic energy of morning drop offs, the snowy parking lot was eerily empty save for a lone figure, his body a dark smudge against the stark white landscape.  

My friend’s dad—the carpool parent for the day—got out to speak to the man. When he returned to the car, instead of ushering my friend and me to our classroom as usual, he reversed course. “School’s closed,” he said as we drove away. The reason, as I recall, was that the school building’s pipes were frozen—an unfortunate effect of temperatures close to -50 °F. 

I was born and raised in Fairbanks, Alaska, a small city tucked just 119 miles below the Arctic Circle, and as a kindergartner, I didn’t realize yet what a brutal place my hometown could be. It didn’t take long, though, for the reality of life in this forbidding frontier to register. As an early elementary school student, I learned to loathe winter-time recess, which was always outdoors unless the temperature dropped below -20 °F. As I got older and started to drive, icy roads caused me huge amounts of stress, and our dark winter days depressed my mood and sapped my energy.  

#8

I have to be honest with you, Dear Reader.

I don’t like hearing NO – especially when it involves the things most sacred to me.

For me, people will always matter most in this life. There have been countless prayers I’ve offered up to Jesus, thanking Him for the ones I’m blessed to have by my side. But the raw, heart-tugging prayers I’ve laid before my King often surface when harsh experiences hit home and the need leaves me desperate on my knees.

In those moments, I think I know which answer is best. I think God’s YES should resound throughout all circumstances in my loved ones’ lives, not to mention my own. Yes, He will provide the job. Yes, He will heal the disease. Yes, He will fulfill the dream. In my understanding, I think the loving answer should be the one that avoids the most pain.

He tells us He is our good Father. Why wouldn’t He want to provide, protect, and prevail? And we are His precious children. The ones He promises to carry close to His heart. Why would He say NO to something we long for so deeply? Why would God ever answer NO?

#7

As a recovering worry wart, I can let my thoughts send me into a whirlwind and quickly derail me. What I’ve learned and continue to strive for is remembering some simple things.

First, be where your feet are, meaning where you physically are—be there. Be completely in the moment, not stuck in your head.  Recently, my husband saw a picture on my phone of my feet on the beach and asked why would I would take a picture of my feet. My answer: It’s a visual reminder to be where my feet are. Present. Not distracted by a conversation in my head that never comes to fruition.

Dr. Derwin Gray often refers to the mind as the scene of the crime. It’s true, our minds can create some altered reality and the devil loves to feed us lies.  Have you ever noticed that the devil creates scenarios in your head that didn’t happen or creates new narratives to conversations you’ve had? Those new narratives are never the truth and they only seem to send your thoughts into a downward spiral. You start believing the lies unless you take those thoughts captive and align them with truth!

#6

They rolled my bed past my husband and my newborn daughter into the hall. Labor exhaustion muddled with anesthesia, and I surrendered to the idea of surgery.

This was our second baby. Since I’d had pre-eclampsia right at the end of my first pregnancy, I wasn’t a stranger to the blood pressure checks and late pregnancy risks.

But this time, baby’s growth started slowing, then shrinking.

Then, ten days before my due date, the warning signs reached the climax. Baby’s heart rate was too high, and a rushed ultrasound placed her in the 3rd percentile, estimated to be about 5 pounds, and diagnosed her as Intrauterine Growth Restricted (IUGR).

We needed to induce right away.

By the time labor engaged, it was so fast and intense that it was shocking to both my body and baby’s.  Within one short hour, a crashing cadence swept through my body like a hurricane, and she was born.

But I barely had time to savor the moment.

As one crisis dimmed, another flashed on like a harsh spotlight blaring its ugly heat straight down at me.

#5

I clench my hands together and lean forward on the metal stands, my eyes focused on the boy in the black cleats.  The ball snaps. He pushes forward. The running back flies through tackles for another gain. In my excitement, I yell and cheer and stomp my feet. 

Tonight, the air crackles with excitement. The score is close, the evening weather is cool with the first hints of fall, and our boys are playing hard, scrappy football. We get a win. Hugs, cheers, and the fight song ripple through the stands. My phone buzzes, full of celebratory texts with other mommas anxiously waiting on scores and game updates. 

After the victory, in a moment of reflection, my heart fills with gratitude for all we’ve learned—and are continuing to learn—within this game. 

#4

Maya Angelou said, “People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” 

Maya Angelou’s words resonate so much for me because I think of all the people who have impacted my life, and their imprint reflects how they made me feel. 

About five years, I decided to write down a list of names of people who have impacted my life through the years. The list was long, and I could remember exactly what that person did to change my life. With gratitude, I began to write them letters. I wanted them to know their influence had been imprinted in my heart. 

#3

Thank you. A simple “thank you” would have been a start. But instead she stared blankly at the road ahead, headphones in her ears to keep me from engaging her in conversation she had no interest in.

The thirty-minute drive in traffic to the outpatient eating disorder clinic was becoming a daily drudgery. Instead of being thankful there was a place my daughter could go for treatment, I dreaded the drive each day to drop her off and the one on the way home where she clammed up and refused to tell me anything about her day.

Tears filled my eyes most days on the return trip, some of the only time I was by myself in this season. Homeschooling five children, managing carpool to classes and activities, and making meals that fit the “menu” prescribed by the experts that everyone else could eat too took up more time than I had available in my weeks.

I was exhausted, discouraged, and angry at the disease taking control of my daughter’s life and mine too.

#2

It was a faded silver Town and Country van. Inside the ceiling was pock-marked with staples and toddler boot prints. The temporary license paper was shredded by dogs, and it broke down three times that winter. Other times it made its journey on prayer more than mechanics and gasoline. I sold it for half of what I paid for it. It took far more money to maintain it than I really could afford at the time. I owned it for a mere three months, and hated every minute of it. I am so grateful for it.

Sometimes teaching on gratitude can lead to guilt when you don’t feel content or happy about certain things. My experience with that van has taught me that I can hate something and also be grateful for it. That van gave me a lot of trouble, yet it also gave me so many lessons in faith and trusting the kindness of strangers. The people who helped me purchase the van, who sheltered my family while we waited for tow trucks, who gave me rides and mechanical assistance, those people showered me with the goodness of God.

It is easy to be grateful for things that make us happy, and we should all take time to give thanks for those things. More often, though, I need to be grateful for things that are hard and unpleasant. Gratitude did not change how I felt about that van (and to be honest how I feel about vehicles in general). What it changes is how I value it. That van gave me a richer faith than a perfect vehicle could.

#1

Four years ago, in that glorious lull between Christmas and New Year’s Day, I kicked back my recliner and opened my laptop to start a new writing project.

I hadn’t even begun when my college son walked in the back door. He’d finished his last day of work and was supposed to move out the next day to start at the university he’d had his heart set on for years.

“My back is killing me,” he said.

Honestly, as a mom to seven kids, I’ve heard lots of my arm-finger-stomach-head-back hurts, so I gave my standard advice: “Go get a hot shower and see if that helps.”

Minutes later, he emerged still dry, now crying from the pain. “Mom, I need to go to the ER.” I closed my laptop, tucked down the recliner and drove him to the nearest outpatient emergency room.

Begin Within is a series to inspire a year-round lifestyle of gratitude that will impact not only your own life, but the lives of your neighbors as well. Gratitude is a theme we talk about often around here because it ties so closely into other missional living rhythms. Practicing gratitude reminds to keep our hearts soft and expectant and our eyes open. Therefore, the more we embrace gratitude, the easier it becomes to truly see our neighbors and where we can join what God is already doing in our neighborhoods.

If you would like to contribute to Begin Within, you can find the submission guidelines here.