Friday November 25, 2016

 

What are you grateful for this Thanksgiving weekend? Who are you grateful to? Have you expressed your gratefulness? Unexpressed gratefulness, for all intents and purposes, is the same as ungratefulness. Ungratefulness is one of those character defects that often times are impossible to see in oneself and that is because we tend to confuse our feelings with our actions. The fact that you feel grateful to someone is good, but believe me, unless you express it that someone perceives you as being ungrateful.

 

One day Jesus was traveling to Jerusalem. On his was he went into a village. From a distance, ten men suffering from leprosy shouted out “Master have pity on us!” Jesus said to them, “go show yourselves to the priests.” As they went, they were healed. One of them, a Samaritan, upon noticing the miracle returned and fell at Jesus’ feet and thanked him.

 

Luke 17:17-18 NIV

Jesus asked, “Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? Has no one returned to give praise to God except this foreigner?”

 

As we read the story of these men, our natural reaction is to think that the nine who did not return were extremely ungrateful. After all, this was no small miracle; these men lived segregated from the rest of the population and suffered the discomfort and pain associated with their disease all the days of their lives. However, I am convinced that if we were to interview these men and ask them if they were grateful, I would wager that their response would be, “of course we are grateful!” They would surely acknowledge the miracle and tell us how much they appreciated what Jesus did for them. Moreover, they would tell us that they would be grateful to Jesus for the rest of their lives.

 

These nine men felt grateful, they just failed to express it and because of this, Jesus perceived them as being ungrateful. The same is true concerning our lives. We may feel grateful to our parents, spouse, children, friends, spiritual leaders or mentors, but unless we express it to them, they will probably perceive us as being ungrateful. Concerning our relationship with God, the same is true. We may say, “God knows that I feel extremely grateful to Him” and I am certain He does but still perceives our unexpressed gratefulness as ungratefulness.

 

Make it a point, not only with your words but also with your actions and deeds to express your gratefulness to those who have helped you move forward. A grateful person is one who is willing to go back and express their gratefulness to those who have enabled them to move forwards.

 

We just wanted to stop for a minute to say, THANKS!