It’s a place to start. In fact, it’s partly what started me on the journey of understanding and embracing thankfulness.
The pastor at the church I attended when a teenager preached on 1 Thessalonians 5:18. He made a big point of saying, “It says in everything, not for everything.” He went on to explain that if you were in a car accident you wouldn’t be thankful for the wreck. You could find things to be thankful for in that situation, like, you could be thankful that it wasn’t as bad as it could have been, but you wouldn’t be thankful for the situation itself. Hey, it makes sense.
However, as my spiritual journey continued, I found a lot of scriptures about giving thanks that opened my eyes to an awareness of the massive, passionate, faithful love of God that demands a deeper level of faith, and a more extreme expression of thanksgiving.
That being said, start where you are. Maybe you’re doing good just to say “Thank You, Lord,” without really knowing what there is to be thankful for. Maybe you are able to look at your situation and say, “It could be worse; thank You, Lord.” Maybe you find some specific thing to be thankful for in the middle of whatever you’re going through. “In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”