A Prayer of Gratitude After a Hard Season

Father, I think I am finally coming out the other side. The season that nearly broke me is loosening its hold, and for the first time in a long while I can breathe without bracing.

I confess that in the thick of it I was not sure I would make it. I lost hope more than once. I said things to You in the dark I would not say in the light. Thank You for not leaving when I did.

So now, standing here blinking in this new and gentler air, I want to thank You for carrying me through the very thing I was certain I could not survive on my own. You held me steady when I had nothing left in my own hands to hold on with.

Your word says that weeping may stay for the night, but rejoicing comes in the morning. The night was so much longer than I thought I could bear. But the morning is actually here now, warm on my face, and I did not imagine it.

Do not let the hard season be wasted. Let it leave me gentler with others who are still in their dark, quicker to sit with them than to fix them.

Thank You for the morning after the longest night. I will not forget who walked me here. Amen.