Many years ago someone took a poll as to the greatest sin committed by mankind. to the surprise of many, the sin chosen as the greatest and most often committed was the sin of ingratitude. This grace is not just a character quality to be displayed one day a year. It should be part of our life all year round. How can we show gratitude?
1. Be sure to express gratitude.
There’s a difference between feeling thankful and giving thanks. Our Lord tells the story of ten lepers who were cleansed in Luke 17:11-19. Only one returned to express thanks. The others felt gratitude, but failed to express it.
There so many of our feelings and expressions that go unexpressed and rob countless people of blessings. A personal note of appreciation to a teacher or a verbal expression of gratitude to anyone doing a favor or kindness always brings a blessing.
The key is to give thanks, not merely to feel thankful.
2. Be grateful for the usual.
It is easy to be grateful for a bonus; it is character to be grateful for a salary. Most of us do not appreciate the usual things of life until they are lost.
One of the finest ways to develop gratitude for the usual is to have periods set aside to imagine what life would be like if the usual were lost. Sometime each day think of the sorrow of losing a husband, or wife, or a child, or a pastor, or a church. Such thinking will lead to gratitude in the heart and should lead to open expressions of that gratitude.
3. Be grateful for the least.
The more you appreciate the little, the more you will enjoy the average. Most of us have much more than we deserve, or for that matter, than anyone in previous generations has ever had.
May God give us gratitude to Himself, gratitude to our loved ones, and gratitude to our friends. then may He give us character to express the feelings of our heart to Him and to those who mean so much to us and do so much for us.
4. Let nothing extinguish gratitude.
There is a strange but true fact about us all. We are so prone to complain because the roses have thorns rather than to rejoice because the thorns have roses.
Someone has said that it hurts more to have your arm cut off than it feels good to have it on. How tragically true this is. This is the reason that someone may do a thousand kindnesses for another and yet lose the ‘friendship’ because of one seeming injustice.
Let us keep our balance. don’t lose a friend because a person who has said thousands of things to help you says or does one thing to hurt you. Don’t lose gratitude because someone who has done something for you does something against you. Let nothing extinguish our appreciation and gratitude to those who have befriended us.
What are you most thankful for?