Thank [God] in everything [no matter what the circumstances may be, be thankful and give thanks], for this is the will of God for you [who are] in Christ Jesus [the Revealer and Mediator of that will]. – 1 Thessalonians 5:18, Amplified Bible (AMP)

According to Karl Pillemer’s 30 Life Lessons: Tried and True Advise from the Wisest Americans, one of the biggest life lessons senior citizens have learned is to count their blessings, even when things are going poorly. As Pillemer reports:

Ursula Lauterbach, seventy-six, brought this point home to me. Her life has been one of much upheaval and significant tragedy. Raised in the former East Germany, she was a child under the Nazi dictatorship, cowered in bomb shelters during the war, and experienced the deprivation of the postwar years. What a lifetime of experiences like this produces, Ursula told me, is the ability to think small:

I THINK THE MOST important thing I learned was not to take things for granted. You cannot be entirely prepared for what will happen to you in life, but I learned that despite everything that happened life is worth living and you can enjoy every day, especially because of the little things in life. You can have joy even if the big things go wrong.

Renata Moratz, seventy-seven, put it this way:

WHAT’S DIFFERENT ABOUT AGING is that you don’t have fifty more years when you’re seventy. That’s the difference—limited time. And the main thing that results from that knowledge is gratitude. The grateful knowledge that today is another day. Every day I say, “Yes, I’m alive.” And every night I say, “Thank you.” I always pick the most simple, most mundane thing to be thankful for, because that’s where it’s at.”

Elder after elder articulated to Pillemer the importance of counting your blessings. Malcolm Campbell was no different. But Malcolm added a particularly important point to the discussion: learn how to count your blessings now, not later. As Pilliemer writes:

Malcolm Campbell, seventy, spent much of his career as a workaholic college professor, driven to succeed at a prestigious Ivy League university. Health problems and the breakup of his marriage in his sixties led him to rethink his approach to life. He learned savoring and wants younger people to start the process earlier than he did:

IT SEEMS TO TAKE a lifetime to learn how to live in the moment but it shouldn’t. I certainly feel that in my own life I have been too future oriented. It’s a natural inclination—of course you think about the future, and I’m not suggesting that that’s bad. But boy is there a lot to be gained from just being able to be in the moment and able to appreciate what’s going on around you right now, this very second. I’ve more recently gotten better at this and appreciate it. It brings peace. It helps you find your place. It’s calming in a world that is not very peaceful. But I wish I could have learned this in my thirties instead of my sixties—it would have given me decades more to enjoy life in this world. That would be my lesson for younger people.”

Long before any of Pillemer’s experts were born, God (through Paul) taught us to count our blessings, no matter what circumstances we find ourselves in. As 1 Thessalonians 5:18 states, it is His will that we do so, and the reason He wants us to do so is that an “attitude of gratitude” is required before we can obey the command of 1 Thessalonians 5:16 (AMP)

Be happy [in your faith] and rejoice and be glad-hearted continually (always);

If you want to be joyful, you must first be thankful. If you struggle in both areas, then start small. Begin developing a thankful heart by thanking God for your next breath, for your next bite of food, or for the touch of the wind on your cheek. Then, as you learn to thank God for the small things, work your way to the habit of thanking God for everything, both small and large. This wonderful habit will help you enjoy life more, and it’ll vastly improve your relationship with your Creator.

Excerpts Are From: Pillemer, Karl. “30 Lessons for Living.” PENGUIN group, 2011-08-19. iBooks. This material may be protected by copyright.

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