Don't forget to say Thank You!!

I don’t know about you but I really don’t think we say the words “Thank You” enough. In the UK we don’t celebrate Thanksgiving, but to me it seems a great idea – a day set aside to say thank you. Saying thank you is what your parents always remind you to say. When I was a child we were virtually forced to write thank you letters to relatives for our various Christmas and birthday gifts.  Making the effort to say thank you via letters or cards isn’t something many still practice. I’m not sure how much its transferred to new mediums, such as email or Facebook. Communication may be easier, but to say thank you may not be so easy? Its been suggested that we may be reluctant to give thanks or appreciation as it makes us feel obligated to others, or makes us feel less self sufficient. Or reason is that, unfortunately, we tend not to notice positive things in our life – sliding out of our mind as if Teflon. Whereas anything negative clings to our memory like Velcro!!

Recently the BBC listed “Writing down good things that happen to you and a letter expressing your gratitude” as part of a feature on feeling better about yourself in their Breakfast Show. Getting into the habit of sharing thanks, genuine gratitude, with others.  Whether saying “thank you”, sending a card, letter or email – or even a small gift – this does seem a simple habit to get into and can make the world a better place for everyone we know.

All this leads me onto listing the final 5 things I would say to God in my list of top 10 – all of them have a sense of gratitude and thankfulness.

Thank you that I am alive and living in a part of the worlds that is in the developed world.

Thank you for my parents and my upbringing that it was positive and stable and a great environment for me to grow up in.

Thank you for relationships and friends especially my wife, Sue.

Thank you for Jesus for sending him to the earth to live, die and be raised from the dead enabling me to have a relationship with God.

Thank you for each and every day I have on this earth enable me to enjoy all the blessings of my life so I can follow you and introduce you those who don’t yet know you.