Being Grateful and Thankful Every Day

The following personal essay was submitted to the Asknoah.org website by a pious observer of the 7 Laws of Noah, who wishes to share his insights.

I have been thinking about this subject a lot. It’s especially important to think about it when you are feeling down, which people do from time to time, or if you are having a really challenging day. The objective is being grateful and thankful for everything G-d has given you.

At that moment when I begin contemplating the blessings I have, I usually start thinking of many physical things, and most of all the fact that G-d returned my soul to me this morning so I’m alive today. Then my mind turns to my spiritual blessings, which include that I’m able to learn Torah properly as a Noahide (the Hebrew Bible / Tanach with its straight forward / peshat explanations, and the great amount of teachings related to the Noahide Code), and I’m able to pray to G-d with my own words and verses from Tanach.

I then write these things down in a notebook, do some editing, and after a little tweaking, I notice that I’ve been composing my personal prayer to G-d. I start seeing all the positive things, all the blessings, and how every circumstance had or surely will have a positive outcome of some sort. I often realize that if something happened a few days before that I thought was negative, it later actually turned out to be positive. With this contemplation, my mind starts to wander, thinking and meditating on G-d’s individual Divine Providence, how everything is done by His will, and how everything really does happen for the best. I see clearly that the Al-mighty has a direct hand in all of my day-to-day activities.

After doing this for several days, or even on the first day, I feel much better and extremely thankful and grateful for everything in my life. This exercise has become something I do every day as part of my prayers.

I hope that my briefly sharing these personal thoughts and experiences will be helpful to you if you’re having a rough time in life, or if you’re feeling down in general. Just remember that you are not alone, especially if you’re blessed to have family and friends, and most importantly you always have G-d!