It is easier for us to see the need to give thanks for the many good things that happen to us in our life. It is not so easy for us to do the same for those events that were painful and we would like to forget. We don't thank God for those moments, but we thank him for his grace and his presence in those moments.  Even though God did not cause them, but permitted them, we thank God that he used them to bring us to a different point in our relationship with him. For each moment and event, each decision, good or bad, God incorporates into the greater plan for our eternal salvation. Lord, thank you for being present with me when I sinned and did not abandoned me. Lord, thank you for the lessons you taught me in those dark moments in my life. Lord, thank your love which has sustained me through the good and the bad.