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inspiration

When you say thanks

We all have a lot to be thankful for; in fact, we can be thankful to someone for benefits extended to someone else!

When you say thank you, is it because it is polite to do so, or is it because you appreciate something of benefit that was done to you or for you?

Giving thanks, or showing appreciation, is a universal gesture that ought to follow as response to every act which directly or indirectly benefits someone. We do not need to go out of our way in search of something to be thankful for! Indeed every interaction with someone – including our time spent in prayer – is an opportunity to express our gratitude for something.

When someone gives you food, or money, or clothing or anything tangible, saying thank you indicates your recognition of a current benefit. It is of no less significance when someone teaches you a new skill; or helps you to land that job; or anything that sets you up for a future benefit. Our very life is a gift to us, and being alive is always, in itself, a reason to be thankful!

In some instances, the benefit of someone’s actions to us is not immediately recognized. For example, as a child, we may believe that our parents refusal to give us a desired item is an act of unkindness, or ‘evil’ even! Or if we wish to go and play while our parents insist that we study, that can lead to some very unkind words being uttered, or whispered depending on the response we know we will get from said parents). That would make our parents quite uncool and unpopular, right!?

However, it is often as we get older or when we become parents that we recognize the good that was intended through the act we previously considered mean or unkind!

Now back to my opening thought: to say thanks merely to satisfy a social requirement for politeness is to miss the whole point of expressing that word. It is instead a recognition of the benefit that someone’s action, or inaction, provides for us. It is acknowledging that we are better off because of what someone does to us or for us, or something someone says to us. It is a recognition that someone didn’t have to, but they did anyway.

A feeling of entitlement tends to reduce one’s inclination to express thanks. After all, ‘…why should I say thanks for someone giving me what’s mine anyways!?’ does sound like a reasonable argument. However, even in such situations, an attitude of gratitude goes a long way. Regardless of status, rank, position, title, race, class, or other societal hierarchical demarcations, gratitude is an imperative.

Additionally, it does not matter whether an act of kindness by someone else amounts to a sacrifice on their part; neither does it matter if it was merely a ‘publicity stunt!’ The determining factor is the benefit realized by the recipient. The well-known cliché ’Beggars can’t be choosers’ highlights the fact that motive for giving ought not to be a determinant of the level of gratitude that should result.

Simple yet effective…and always the right response!

I will conclude by noting that there is a potential benefit for expressing thanks – genuine thanks: it might just encourage someone to repeat that act of kindness to us, or to someone else in the future.

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inspiration

Gratitude – A Matter Of Perspective

Taking a pause to give thanks for what we have is a useful way to remind ourselves of our many blessings

In our quest for material gain and social advancement we sometimes lose sight of the things that ought to be most important.

We compromise our health in pursuit of wealth.

We ignore the blessings we have – such as limbs that move – forgetting that some persons have none.

We complain about the food we have to eat – forgetting that some have nothing to eat, some have little or no choice about what they eat, while others have to be fed through tubes.

When we view our circumstances through the correct lens, we find that we actually have far more to give thanks for than we may have previously realized. We are blessed in so many ways and while someone else might have something we lack and desire, if we shift our focus inwards we will find that we are indeed blessed beyond measure.

When what we have is assessed from a perspective of gratitude, we might even find that we do have a lot that others are wishing they had – things that may even be of far greater value than what we have been pining after.

#gratitude #AttitudeOfGratitude #BlessedBeyondMeasure