By Robyn Young

I have a favorite poem:

Give thanks for dirty dishes,
They have a tale to tell.
While other folks go hungry,
We're eating very well.
With health and home and happiness,
We shouldn't want to fuss,
But by this stack of evidence,
God's very good to us.

(Anonymous)

I’ll admit it—my kitchen is usually a disaster of dirty dishes, and I don’t often feel very thankful for them. More often, I’m standing there wondering how six people managed to use every single dish we own in one meal. But the truth is, those dishes wouldn’t be dirty if we weren’t fortunate enough to eat multiple times a day. So if something as annoying as a sink full of dishes is actually a blessing in disguise, what other things am I calling "bad" that are actually really good? What other everyday frustrations might secretly be blessings?

Just last week, a pipe burst under our kitchen sink. Water sprayed everywhere—soaking the floor, the cabinets, and even making its way to the basement. Of course, it happened at the worst possible time: during the morning chaos of trying to get kids out the door to school. I was frustrated. This was our third kitchen flood in three years—and the second in just a few months. I stomped around the house grumbling for a while, but that didn’t make me feel any better.

I’ve heard (and even told others!) that gratitude in everything is the key to happiness. So I figured I’d try it. I started listing anything I could think of to be thankful for about the flood: I was thankful for homeowner’s insurance. Thankful for the restoration company we’ve liked working with before. Thankful that we were home when it happened, so we could shut the water off quickly. Thankful for our shop vac to suck up the mess. Thankful that I didn’t have many plans that day. And deeply thankful to the neighbor who took over the playgroup I usually run.

I was thankful for the paper plates and plastic forks my in-laws had left behind after a recent family dinner. Thankful for baby wipes and hand sanitizer since the water was shut off most of the day. Thankful for the gallons of water we had stored in the basement. Thankful for school breakfast for the girls who hadn’t eaten before leaving. And thankful that my little ones were content watching TV while I handled clean-up. I was even thankful that I’d been through this before—I knew how disruptive it would be, and that helped me approach it with more calm and less stress. And that was a big deal, because it was a busy week.

And something amazing happened as I focused on what I was thankful for: I felt happy. The frustration melted away. I realized that even in a mess, even in chaos, even in the middle of trial—I had so much to be grateful for.

It was a powerful lesson. The scriptures say to “give thanks always for all things unto God” (Ephesians 5:20). That includes the hard things. But why? Why should we be thankful for the parts of life that are painful or inconvenient?

I think about military boot camp. New soldiers go through intense, exhausting, often miserable experiences—not because someone is trying to make their lives miserable, but because those experiences are essential. Every challenge is designed to help them reach a specific goal. The hard stuff isn’t random—it’s on purpose. Without it, the soldier wouldn’t become who they need to be. Life works the same way. I believe God designs our experiences with a similar goal in mind—what we’re meant to become. Without trials, our growth would be incomplete. So if every challenge is actually part of a divine design, then even the “bad” stuff is working for us, not against us.

And when we start to view life that way—when we reach the point where we can be grateful even for the things we don’t like—something shifts. The hard things don’t feel quite so hard. We stop seeing lack and start seeing abundance. We start noticing blessings all around us and realize that God hasn’t abandoned or forgotten us. We start spotting miracles. And beyond just seeing more good, we start attracting it. Gratitude changes our perspective—and it transforms our lives.

It’s not always easy. It takes practice. But the practice is worth it. So the next time life gets messy (literally or figuratively), pause and ask yourself:
"What do I have to be thankful for?"
You just might be surprised by how blessed you really are.