Express your Thankfulness!
posted by on 11/21/07
I love Thanksgiving time! One of the ways I have already been able to celebrate the spirit of Thanksgiving is by sending Thank You cards to people who have invested time, skill, and kindness in my life.
One letter was to a former Sunday School teacher whose class I attended when I was nine or ten. Pointing out specific things I remember learning in his class, I thanked him for his encouragement and example to me during a very important time of spiritual growth. Because we had moved since attending the church, it took some time to search and verify the address, but it was well worth it for the joy that came from expressing gratefulness.
Another letter was to the folks who fixed our Kubota tractor. You see, we had many problems with it this year. Though we had to take many trips to and from the shop to get to the root problem, we were still very thankful that it was indeed repaired. In writing the Thank You, I focused on being thankful for different character qualities they had displayed.
Thirdly, we sent a Thank You card to a generous gentleman who had given us four free meals at McDonalds after an unexpected series of events. Because I wasn’t sure he was a Christian, I focused on incorporating Scripture in writing my part of the card.
Writing Thank You cards is a very fulfilling project, especially at this time of year. Creating cards with or without a computer is not very hard and something almost anyone can do. I hope you also will take the time express your thankfulness in special ways this Thanksgiving to make it a holiday of true thanks giving!
James, that is fantastic! Thankfulness is one of the most important qualities for success in life, and yet is is so often overlooked and forgotten. You have inspired me to think of ways to express gratefulness. If the Puritans and Pilgrims were thankful after the hardships they went through, I certainly have no excuse to be unthankful. Yes, I should be overflowing with appreciation to God and others on a continual basis! “In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.” 1 Thess. 5:18
Thank YOU for sharing that James. Michael is right when he said “Thankfulness is one of the most important qualities . . . and yet . . . so often overlooked and forgotten.” Thanks again for a real-life reminder–and may we keep discovering that the Lord is our Reward when we develop the specific character qualities of Christ.
Never take for granted the grace of God that is upon us to be grateful. It is an art that we all too often forget. I appreciate the encouragement. Will those three occurences be recorded in the back of your life notebook? Sounds like 3 perfect candidates!
Great seeing you all this past weekend. We are ever grateful for the manifestation of Christ in you all!
Wow, thankfulness it very important. I’m glad you were able to thank that Sunday school teacher even after all this time. And I’m glad you sent a thank you card to the Kubota people; thy probably don’t get very many of those. And that was good to give that person that gave us those free McDonald cards. When we were at McDonald’s we met someone and were able to talk with them about Christians. Thanks for being such an encouragement to me to be more thankful.