The Power of Being Thankful
By Deacon Jeffery Howard
Have you ever gone out of your way or sacrificed time from your busy schedule to try and help someone? Ponder for a moment about how it made you feel when someone told you thank you or when you did not receive thanks after helping someone. We have all probably experienced this at one time in our lives. The simple words, “thank you” may have inspired you in one or two ways: you felt appreciated and were more likely help that person again; or, you may have felt taken for granted and if the opportunity presented itself again, you may have had second thoughts prior to helping them.
During the month of November, it is usually a season of thanksgiving. We often take the time to pause and count our blessings from God, and to be thankful how other people in our lives have blessed us. The mystery of it is you really cannot measure thankfulness. The simple words of thank you, are so powerful when you have been blessed; they can have a humbling effect on your attitude and emotions. The words will often inspire us to help someone else who has a need.
One of best ways for a Saint to be thankful is to always remember what our Lord and Savior has done for us; He sacrificed His life on the cross for the sins of the entire world. This is the true meaning of thanksgiving, everything else is perhaps secondary. While Jesus was here on the earth, He demonstrated and taught the importance of being thankful. Recall the account in the Gospel of Luke chapter 9 before Jesus performed the miracle to feed five thousand men with two fish and five barley loaves. The scripture tells us in verse 9:16, “Then he took the five loaves and the two fishes, and looking up to heaven, he blessed them, and brake, and gave to the disciples to set before the multitude.” Jesus was giving thanks to His Father.
Another account in the Gospel of Luke is the ten men with leprosy who cried out to Jesus to have mercy on them. The men went to Jesus and He healed them, but something caught His attention afterwards. In Luke 17:15-17, Jesus teaches us: “And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, and with a loud voice glorified God, And fell down on his face at his feet, giving him thanks: and he was a Samaritan. And Jesus answering said, Were there not ten cleansed? but where are the nine?” Even Jesus expected all of the men with this incurable disease to follow suit of the Samaritan to give thanks and glorify God!
So before you and your family or friends sit to dine at the table for the Thanksgiving Day dinner feast, take a moment and remember to count your blessings and give thanks to those who have blessed you in your life. You will be even more inspired to help someone else who has a need and you will surely understand how powerful it is to be thankful!