Thankful or Giving Thanks? (11/27/13)

As the month of November progresses, I have been reading posts on Facebook of things that people are thankful for.  This has been very encouraging to me.  Since I do not always check my Facebook daily, I did not see this trend until the 5^th of the month.  I thought about catching up and joining this group of my friends who were participating.  Realizing that this would require logging in daily, I chose not to.  Instead, I would consider the things I am thankful for on my own.

I remember hearing a message which stated that the term “giving thanks” appears 8 times as often as thankful (80/10) in the Amplified translation of the Bible. (ESV is 73/3 and NLT is 46/10) This truly made me think about the subject of being thankful and looking at those scriptures.   I spent some time looking at these verses.   Even the few verses about thankfulness or being thankful were either an expression of Paul’s appreciation, or they were a part of a command to express thanks.

In my last post (11/25/13) I spoke of a thankfulness glass.  The goal is to have your glass not only half full, but brimming over.  Considering the command of God to express our thankfulness, I thought of how water gets stale when left in a glass.  For it to provide true refreshment to the drinker, it needs to be emptied and refilled regularly.  Likewise, when my heart is full of thankfulness, it should flow from my mouth with ease.  “The upright (honorable, intrinsically good) man out of the good treasure [stored] in his heart produces what is upright (honorable and intrinsically good), and the evil man out of the evil storehouse brings forth that which is depraved (wicked and intrinsically evil); for out of the abundance (overflow) of the heart his mouth speaks.” (Luke 6:45)

I have become increasingly conscious of expressing my gratitude to the Lord.  There is great joy and peace that comes with the awareness of all that I can thank Him for.  If I am having a hard time, I can start with the salvation provided by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  I can continue on about a loving Father God and the companionship and leading of the Holy Spirit.  Before I even begin with my family, friends and things God has blessed me with, I have already thanked myself happy.

I was thanking God for this.  I am very happy that gratitude is becoming my default response to life.  Before I could pat myself on the back too much for these changes, God spoke to my heart. Though I may have improved my expression to Him, how am I doing with other people?  Ouch!  I try to voice kindness, mercy and gratitude to others.  But I have a long way to go.  The excuse “They know how much I appreciate them,” just will not hold up.  “Thank you” must be vocalized continually.

Have you ever bragged on how much you appreciate something a person has done, only to have that person later tell you he or she never realized you felt that way?  I can think of times this has occurred with my husband.  As I contemplate it now, I can think of other things, big and small, that he does, and I fail to let him know just how much these things affect me.  Then I think of my son.  Although I love and am grateful for so much about him, I tend to ask a lot more of him than telling Him what I appreciate. If I think long and hard enough, there are many people for which this is true of. Why is it so natural to tell others about something good, yet never speak your appreciation to the person you appreciate?

The reason I have been so encouraged by these Facebook posts is not that my friends are thankful.  It is that they have chosen to give thanks by writing it out.  Their time, effort and expression of thankfulness moves this from their hearts to my eyes.  As the reader, I get to experience this with them. 

So now, I find that simply considering what I am thankful for is not enough.  I will be actively attempting to thank those I appreciate.  God has already giving me some creative ideas on how to do this. 

I want my life to be one that shows what is in my heart.  “Through Him, therefore, let us constantly and at all times offer up to God a sacrifice of praise, which is the fruit of lips that thankfully acknowledge and confess and glorify His name.” (Hebrews 13:15 AMP) My aim is to give thanks to God in every situation.  I also want to express my appreciation to others in both the big and little things of life.

So to start…To anyone reading this post, THANK YOU for taking the time!!!