Showing Gratitude, Or Just Lip-Service?

Wisdom Nugget: "In every thing give thanks...In every way and everywhere we accept this with all gratitude."

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We may offer fervent expressions of gratitude in the prayer meeting and sing aloud in the praise service, but our real sense of indebtedness must manifest itself in more practical ways.

A king had saved the life of one of his subjects, and every day afterwards she came to his gate with protestations of gratitude. "I can never begin to pay the debt I owe him," she bewailed. One day the king, in his chariot, passed her cottage. He saw in her garden a tree bearing some luscious fruit, and was seized with a desire to taste it. When he sent his servant with the request that he be given some of the fruit to take to the king, she replied that she only had enough fruit to meet her own needs. She thus laid bare the fact that her expressions of gratitude had been mere words which lacked the element of truthfulness.

Beloved, we must understand that "being grateful" isn't just a feeling, it also includes "giving" in response to that gratefulness you feel, either to that person or reason to whom you're grateful, for which you're grateful. This "giving" could be translated into material gifts (sometimes), or just verbal acknowledgement in some other instances.

Tony Robbins says of gratefulness, "When you are grateful, fear disappears and abundance appears."

And Albert Einstein adds, "There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle."

On Gratitude

 Wisdom Nugget: "Gratitude is the inward feeling of kindness received. Thankfulness is the natural impulse to express that feeling. Thanksgiving is the following of that impulse."

Henry Van Dyke

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Two men were walking through a field one day when they spotted an enraged bull. Instantly they darted toward the nearest fence. The storming bull followed in hot pursuit, and it was soon apparent they wouldn't make it. Terrified, the one shouted to the other, "Put up a prayer, John. We're in for it!" John answered, "I can't. I've never made a public prayer in my life." "But you must!" implored his companion. "The bull is catching up to us." "All right," panted John, "I'll say the only prayer I know, the one my father used to repeat at the table: "O Lord, for what we are about to receive, make us truly thankful."

If there is one vice most prevalent today, it is the vice of ingratitude. We receive so much, yet we complain. Our indebtedness to life is enormous and yet we rarely or at least infrequently offer thanks for our many little blessings. In fact, most people are even too ashamed to publicly offer thanks over their meals much less offer thanks over all the other blessings in our  lives. From the time we set out to go to work or school in the morning, we are either grouchy about the bus driver, crabby about the traffic, fussy about the staff who didn't answer our greeting, grumpy about our bad boss or just generally pissed off with the whole world.

We are much like the little boy who was given an orange by a man. The boy's mother asked, "What do you say to the nice man?" The little boy thought and handed the orange back and said, "Peel it." Expressing thankfulness need not be confined to a day or a season; it ought to be an attitude, a daily practice, a culture. Not to do it is to become bad-tempered, irritable, edgy, snappy, sullen, touchy, peevish, petulant, sulky, ill-tempered, irascible and cantankerous. Sounds like recipe for a very ugly look. You are too good looking to look like that. So, "in every thing give thanks..."

Never hold back in showing gratitude for acts of kindness received, no matter how small, Remember the saying: "feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it" - William Arthur Ward.

Thank You I

Wisdom Nugget: "...Develop an attitude of gratitude, and give thanks for everything that happens to you, knowing that every step forward is a step toward achieving something bigger and better than your current situation.

                                                                                                                   - Brian Tracy

                     

How important do you think it is to show appreciation for little kind gestures, as insignificant as someone holding a door open for you at a public place? Hear Gertrude Stein, "Silent gratitude isn't very much to anyone." And Melody Beattie adds, "gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend."

We should learn to make it a habit of saying "thank you", to express our appreciation, sincerely and without the expectation of anything in return. Truly appreciate those around you, and you'll soon find many others around you. Truly appreciate life, and you'll find that you have more of it. The greatest humiliation in life, is to work hard on something from which you expect great appreciation, and then fail to get it." E. W. Howe

Two men were walking along one summer day. Soon it became too hot to go any further and, seeing a large plane tree nearby, they threw themselves on the ground to rest in its shade, gazing up into the branches one of the two men said to the other, "What a useless tree this is. It does not have fruit or nuts that we can eat; it's just taking up nutrients from the soil for nothing. It should be cut down and its wood used for cooking." "Don't be so ungrateful," rustled the tree in reply. "I am being extremely useful to you at this very moment, shielding you from the hot sun. And you call me a good-for-nothing?"

This is exactly how we in most cases treat God and his blessings on our lives, ever being so ungrateful. Failing to remember the goodness of God at various times, in our lives; Gerald Good said, "If you want to turn your life around, try thankfulness. It will change your life mightily."

Give thanks always, no matter how small we might think our blessings are.