“To be thankful for the things that are hardest to be thankful for—pain, suffering, death, illness, tiredness—to be grateful for those is something that happens once you have learned how to be grateful for the things that are easier to be grateful for. So rather than saying to yourself ‘I’m now going to be grateful for all of my suffering,’ start by being grateful for the lovely things! God gives us these things that are easy to be grateful for so that we learn how to do that. Then, when sufferings come, we already have some practice in these things, we have practice in being grateful as a response.”
(Bishop Irenei of Western Europe, talk)