Recently, I realized there was a four-letter word that I needed to scrub from my vocabulary. It was the word . . . more.

This word wasn’t an overt thing in my life. It wasn’t like I went around thinking, “I need more of this and more of that.” But it was there in the background, almost like a state of mind.

Talking to friends about it made me realize that this is a word that haunts a lot of us. One friend remembered how every time she got a college acceptance, she was excited, but all she could think about was whether or not she’d get the next one. Another said he felt that way every time he played soccer. He was always looking for more time on the field, more goals. We agreed that it was hard to be truly happy, content, and satisfied with this feeling of wanting more always lurking on the perimeter.

But what could we do about it?

That question was answered for me by the chapter “Prayer” in the book Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy. One of the forms of prayer she talks about in that chapter is gratitude—acknowledging God’s goodness and feeling really grateful for it. To be honest, sometimes I’ve glazed over a little when I’ve read those parts. It’s like, OK, yeah, being grateful is important. But I kind of know that already, don’t I?

It was hard to be truly happy, content, and satisfied with this feeling of wanting more always lurking on the perimeter.

But I didn’t know that—not in a really profound way, at least—because this time, when I read one particular sentence about gratitude in Science and Health, I found myself stopping short. Here’s what it says: “Are we really grateful for the good already received?” (p. 3).

That word really was what jumped out at me. I realized the author was asking me to pause and question myself: How genuine was my gratitude? Was I actually, truly grateful for the good in my life?

I sat with and prayed with that question for a bit. And that’s when I saw the connection to what my friends and I had been talking about. In order to be really grateful, we have to get rid of more.

This takes some genuine spirituality because it can seem easy to focus on the places where more feels really needed and legitimate. But that’s where the second part of that sentence comes in: “the good already received.” In the past, I’d taken that to mean the good in my life that was already apparent. The good stuff that had already happened. And sure, it’s important and helpful to be grateful for those blessings. But it goes deeper than that.

This time, I got that deeper meaning. “The good already received” is God’s infinite goodness that’s already in place—always in place. It’s not just the ten good things we can recognize and then tick off on a gratitude list. It’s good that’s both seen and unseen. Good that exists because God is good. And so, God being always present, good has to be always present. It’s a law. It’s a gift we can’t escape. It’s actually the substance of our lives. And the more we acknowledge that all good is here—a constant—the more our lives reflect the expansiveness and richness of that goodness.

There was a beautiful feeling to this realization. There was more. So much more! But it wasn’t a more that I needed to get. It was a more that I already had and just had to see more clearly. It was like I’d been walking around in a world that was black and white and shades of gray and then suddenly discovered color. There were so many facets of good to be seen and recognized—both in my prayers and in outward ways in my life.

Doing this became a joyful thing, and it was very different than looking for more. Rather than the worry that came with that old desire, now I felt gratitude, because I was acknowledging the good I knew was present. And even when that “more” feeling does crop up, it’s easier to dismiss it because I’m so much more conscious of the good that’s there for me—and for all of us.

Things happened in my life, too, that were unexpected: A relative paying for something significant completely out of the blue. Neighbors helping me in ways I never would have predicted I’d need.

And don’t get me wrong: I’m profoundly grateful for all of it. But the best part of this deeper thankfulness is that it’s given me a different way of looking at the world, and what’s there to be seen is truly something worth our sincere gratitude.