Thankful?

We're 10 days into our 40 Days of Gratitude at New Life and I was wondering whether you woke up and thanked God for the greatest gift of all today--Jesus!  That's this week's challenge to thank God every day for the greatest gift of all!  I woke up early this morning--2:35 to be exact. It wasn't that I wanted to get up then.  I woke up with a headache and some other discomfort.  I started to pray.  I prayed for the pain to subside so I could go back to sleep.  At 3:45 I got up and took a couple Alleve.  That's extreme for me, because I don't like taking medicine, but I was aching in some joints and the head was still hurting.  At 5:30 when my alarm went off, I still hadn't been back to sleep.  I'd tossed and turned and prayed, but to be honest, none of the prayer was of the thanksgiving type.  It hit me that we're supposed to give thanks in all situations, so I started thanking God for His blessings, common and amazing.  I thanked Him for Jesus, and then something cool happened--I fell asleep.  You probably thought I was going to say that all the pain went away.  Actually, when I woke up a couple hours later, the headache was gone, and much of the other pain.  I decided to forego my usual morning run/prayer time, and started into my day.  I'd already been praying on and off for a while, and I realized that even though I was still in some discomfort I really was THANKFUL--thankful for Jesus, thankful for a warm home, thankful for the opportunity to start the day a little more slowly than usual, and thankful that even in the midst of pain and discomfort, God was on my heart and mind.  Gratitude is an attitude we can maintain not only when it's sunny, but also when it's raining and we're feeling "party cloudy" ourselves--THANKS to Jesus' presence in us!