Thankfulness

Oh! How much we love the words THANK YOU, PLEASE and SORRY. It is part of etiquette and politeness. I have a friend who is very good at it. She says these words as frequent as she says I. This little act of courtesy really moves me. I like it a lot. Though it was a little bit hard for me to practice and also took a long time for me to get used to it. When I finally did, I felt wonderful. It was nice and pleasing to be around people saying those three things clearly and boldly. I gained the respect and friendliness of a lot of people. A good attitude begins with gratitude. As these three things are essential in our daily dealings with our neighbours so are they important in our relationship with God. In fact they are the most important words in our prayer. Remember our pattern of prayer should be like this:

Thank God for His providence (THANK YOU)

Ask for Forgiveness (SORRY)

State your request (PLEASE)

Conclude with thanking Him again

Yes, it is the same thing. After all, you start each respectively with Thank you, Sorry and Please.

There are many reasons we should be thankful to God. If we were to count our blessings, we would have spent years, not even days, because there will be a mix-up in the counting. This is because thankfulness is in what is in your heart and not in what is in your hands. If you do not know what to tell God, try this: express your thankfulness for the good things He has given you, for your family and friends, and for life itself. Then you will begin to experience for yourself the blessings of thankfulness. Do you know that an attitude of gratitude can make your life a beatitude? Let us practice thankfulness of God instead of complaining about what we do not have, instead of fuming about how unfair life is and instead of asking more for ourselves.

A story is told of a 4-year old girl who staring at a pile of oranges. On seeing this, the kind seller gave her one of the oranges. When her mother asked her what she said to the man, she thrusted it towards him saying "Peel it!" That is what exactly we do to God. When you ask of a car and He gives you one you request for money to be able to refill its petrol tank. If you were not given money to buy the car you would have backslided. That is the more reason some prayers remained unanswered.

Another story is told of a small boy during the World War 2. Many churches were usually kept open for 24 hours to enable people go in and pray for their loved ones at the war-front. A deacon in one of these churches noticed this boy who came in every day for only 10 minutes. After several weeks, the boy came in and stayed on his knees much longer. The deacon went over to him and asked why he was there for so long. He replied, "Each day I came here to ask God to bring my dad back home safely. This morning he did, so I hurried back to thank the Lord for answering my prayers." How thankful are we? Are we as thankful as the little girl in the first story or as thankful as the boy in the second story? Or are we as thankful as myself who has a story to share?

I studied and prayed about my U.M.E examination. During the examinations, I finished thirty good minutes before the allotted time. When the result was out I felt disappointed. I could not say or do anything because I did not believe it was my result. I rushed to the chapel and fell on my knees in prayer. All I could say while there was, "Thank you Jesus." I felt disappointed and I told Him so in there. I thought anything happy and good to thank Him about but found just two; at least my results were out and my centre was not cancelled. The next day, it seemed my prayers were answered. I was being congratulated by my family members on my success. That was when the truth dawned on me. I had gone over my cut-off point at my first sitting all by myself. I remembered a story I had shared with my friends about TWINKLE, TINKLE and TATTLE; The Twinkle being the light of the word of God, the Tinkle being our bells of testimony and Tattle being our prayer which we use to bark off the enemy-the devil. I freed up myself and had the courage to tell people my score. Most of my mates did not believe it because they expected a score higher than that from me. That did not mean anything so far I had expressed my thanks to God for my score. By that, I had rung my bells of testimony.

Ephesians 5:20-Giving thanks always to God the father, for all things, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. The reasons we may find it hard to give thanks are as many as the struggles that strike us each day. Difficulties do not pause for a thanksgiving break. Despite our trials, we can give thanks to God for victory over death [1 Corinthians 15:56-57] His nearness [Hebrews 13:5] His unfailing goodness [Psalm 106:1] Deliverance from sin [Romans 7:24-25] For gift of His son Jesus who gives us eternal life For gift of earthly life to serve Him For the gift of each other so we may enjoy community So if you pause to think, you will have cause to thank.

I once read of St. Peter giving a soul a tour of Heaven. On passing through the Receiving, Packaging and Delivery sections, they found out that it was busy with lots of angels. On passing through the Acknowledgement area, there was only one angel and he was idle because people never remember to thank God for the blessings they receive. Please do not be among them. Go for thanksgiving, payment of your tithes and personal thankful prayers.