The devotional book Springs in the Valley by Mrs. Charles E. Cowman has a very interesting story related to the topic of discouragement. The story tells of a man who found a barn where Satan kept his seeds ready to be sown in the human heart. He found that the seeds of discouragement were more numerous than the others and he learned that those seeds could be made to grow almost anywhere. However, when Satan was questioned, he reluctantly admitted that there is one place in which he cannot get then to thrive. When the man asked where that would be, Satan replied that it was in the heart of a grateful person.

“In everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” (1 Thessalonians 5:18)

“The person who has stopped being thankful has fallen asleep in life.”–Robert Louis Stevenson