Unexpected words of thanksgiving

 Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise! Give thanks to him; bless his name! Psalm 100:4

I never learned the prayer formulas that are popular today. I am grateful that the people who taught me how to pray knew their Bible. They took Psalm 100 seriously and they started their prayers thanking God for what He has done. 

While we know the prayer formula, I believe that thanksgiving can spill from our prayers to our regular speech.

I wonder what would happen if we would practice thanksgiving in our everyday conversations. 

I think people would be surprised. Let’s say, you’d experiment with it for a day or so. Before you go on with any conversation, you make the point to be grateful. Once you do that, see how impacts the person on the receiving end. 

People expect the polite “thank yous.” What they do not expect is for you and me to find different reasons to be thankful. They also don’t expect us to be vocal about it. 

It may be a little awkward at first but you will get used to it. Last summer, in the midst of that time of racial tensions, I called someone who is not Black and I thanked her for living a life that believes that God created all people equally. I also thanked her for believing in me as a person. The lady was very humble about the whole thing. I will never know how she received my unexpected words of thanksgiving. I do know it felt good to say them. 

I gave this thing a try this morning. I thanked our health care workers for being so organized and thoughtful. I could tell the lady was touched. 

We can be vocal about our thanksgiving on purpose. My challenge for you today is to find at least one person and express your thanksgiving. Wait and see how they will react. Keep this good habit going. I know it pleases God when we can be thankful to Him and one another. 

Prayer: Lord, I have more reasons to be thankful than to complain. I appreciate you for that. Help me share words of thanksgiving to at least someone who needs it most today. I ask in faith and I will follow up with action. In Jesus’ name, amen.