"We tend, however, to divide our past into good things to remember with gratitude and painful things to accept or forget. This way of thinking, which at first glance seems quite natural, prevents us from allowing our whole past to be the source from which we live our future. It locks us into a self involved focus on our gain or comfort. It becomes a way to categorize, and in a way, control. Such an outlook becomes another attempt to avoid facing our suffering. Once we accept this division, we develop a mentality on which we hope to collect more good memories than bad memories, more things to be glad about than things to be resentful about, more things to celebrate than to complain about.

Gratitude in its deepest sense means to love life as a gift to be received thankfully. And true gratitude embraces all of life: the good and the bad, the joyful and the painful, the holy and the not-so-holy. We do this because we become aware of God's life, God's presence in the middle of all that happens." -Henri Nouwen

I especially love the part about being locked into a self involved focus on our gain or comfort. I want so badly to have a family and am constantly told by others that I will have one, but I want to be satisfied in the Lord and no longer remain "unsatisfied" just because I don't have these fleeting desires fulfilled. The Lord being sufficient for me is my prayer right now. I don't want to live my life as someone who is seeking to find pleasure or happiness, I want to be someone who finds pleasure in seeking the Lord at all times of my life.