A Thank Full Heart Expressed

“Breathing in blessings; exhaling gratitude.”

David Zailer

 

It’s November, the month that causes us to pause and reflect on our blessings and give thanks.  Growing up, being grateful and expressing thanks were lessons that were taught, modeled, and expected.  Thank you notes were written, pictures were drawn or taken with a camera and sent, phone calls were made, and verbal expressions were encouraged as appropriate ways of expressing gratitude for a gift or act of kindness.  Those lessons on gratitude were ones we wanted to instill in our sons as well.

We are thankful for the gift, but also need to express our gratitude to the giver.  Whether it is a gift or act of kindness, others are blessed when their efforts are recognized, appreciated, and acknowledged.  Psalm 100 reminds us that we enter God’s gates when we are thankful, but when we acknowledge God as the giver and provider of our blessings, with praise and adoration, we are invited into his courts.

John Piper expressed:

“Teaching God’s free grace, and his gift of himself…is one half of the story; teaching gratitude, and heartfelt thanksgiving, is the other half. Grace that doesn’t produce gratitude hasn’t succeeded in softening hard hearts.”

Especially during this holiday season, may our lives be refreshing, encouraging, and full of thanks as we intentionally breathe in blessings and exhale gratitude.

Enter his gates with thanksgiving

     and his courts with praise;

     give thanks to him and praise his name.

For the LORD is good and his love endures forever;

     his faithfulness continues through all generations.

Psalm 100:4-5

Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.

I Thessalonians 5:18