One summer we were given cheap standby tickets to France. We set up a home swap with a family in Bordeaux and set off with our three little ones to the airport.

Then, one after another, we were dropped from connecting departures. For the next week, we found ourselves in strange airports, waiting hours for uncertain flights and doing our best to keep gloom from our preschoolers.

Most nights we spent on airport floors or cheap plastic furniture. But we found as long as we kept a hopeful outlook, as long as we kept counting our blessings, we were able to keep our little part of the world at peace.

A few months later, my little ones and my husband lay asleep in the car. While I waited for them to wake, I pondered the life lesson I’d gotten to practice so much and scribbled down the words to my children’s book, “Goodbye Gloomies.”

My heart was so full of what I’d learned — that thankfulness wards away anxiety. Thankfulness can conjure up joy.

Circumstances don’t control us, God does.

Whether we have no place to lay our head or we’re enjoying a nap on a porch swing in Bordeaux, there is always a reason to thank Him.