I thank you
God's really been hammering this idea of thankfulness into my head recently. It really started on Sunday (or maybe even before).
For youth group, we attended the Holy Hour for the building fund. During Adoration, I was reminded of a blog post I wrote many years ago, and have since reposted at least twice because it's that important and I obviously need to be reminded of it often. (If you’re interested, click here for one of the re-postings) It centers around the idea that too often, our... ok MY... prayers of requests WAY outnumber prayers of thankfulness.
As I was being reminded of this post, I was also reminded of my last Adoration experience, the Thursday before. I spent a lot of that Adoration not just making requests but making demands. The entire hour. I honestly don't think I said one word of thanks the entire time.
So I got the idea from God that it was time to be more thankful and less demanding. In fact, the next day, one of my echo prayer manager reminders was "pray for thankfulness." For not the first time, I was amazed at how much God has an influence over what prayer requests I get. So I said a quick prayer of thanks and went on my way.
As the week went on, I started seeing another side to this thankfulness idea. This past Sunday was also the last day of PSR. As such, there were presents I was handing out to the teachers and youth assistants. I even got a present from one of the youth assistants. This idea popped in my head about how stupid that was. They work for the whole year, and we wait til the very end to thank them?! The more I thought, though, I remembered my weekly email to the teachers. Each one ended with "thank you for all that you do!" So I guess we didn't wait til the end to say thank you, we just waited to the end to give them something to show our thanks. I felt a little better about that until Tuesday happened.
Tuesday was my performance review at the diocese. I was nervous. I had no reason to be, yet still, I was. Maybe cause it was my first one. Maybe because I had to come up with three goals for myself for the next year and I was worried about if the goals I had were going to be good enough. I don't think I thought about it much, but if I had, I would have been worried about the scores I was going to be given. Either way, I was not looking forward to this performance review at all.
Looking back, though, I can't wait for the next one. Words of affirmation are great! To be told that I do stuff, not just well, but over the top amazing was wonderful! To be told thanks, not just that word but specifically thank you for this and this and this. It was truly amazing. Caused the rest of my day to go so much better.
Looking back, it's not that my boss never said thanks to me. It's just that 90% of the time, that's all it was: "thanks." And honestly, there’s That’s when I realized there's a difference between saying thanks, and being specific about your thanks. That's when I realized I had good reason to feel bad about the way I thanked the teachers. That's when I realized, I should feel bad about the way I thanked God when I got that text message. I thought I had the right idea at the time, but, like always, God had something much bigger in plan.
So time for my challenge to you, cause if God can challenge me to do something, then I can sure as heck give that challenge to you as well... Do better about your thanks! Just saying thank you isn't enough. You have to be specific when you say thanks it you have to show how thankful you are. Do better about being thankful! I'm sure if you think about it, there are people in you life that helped you become what you are today (moms come to mind, maybe because Mother’s Day is Sunday). When was the last time you told them thanks? Last mother's day? Have you ever told them thanks? Increase those prayers of thanksgiving! Everything we have is a gift from God. “It’s not I, but Christ who lives in me.” From the gifts and talents you've been given, to the food on your table, to those friends and family members that you're so thankful for. Everything is a gift from God. And instead if being like whining little children, asking (or maybe even demanding) more, we need to be thankful and appreciate what we have been given.
Dear Jesus,
You’ve given me a lot to think about. And a nice long list to challenge me with. I know it’s not going to be easy. Not at all. I know I’m going to need Your help... lots of it! I really don’t want to fail at this one. Can You help a sister out? (:
Amen.
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