A thankful heart is a magnet
That attracts favorable weathers
Help cheerfully surrounds a soul
Seeped and dripping with gratitude
And to him that is appreciative
Hope abounds, for though he goes
Down, he will yet float again:
The thank-full will never sink.
During one of my internships as an undergraduate, we worked like a family in the group I was assigned to. I loved to work and I would be on my feet from start to end of business, and not yet tired. I recall the young men calling me aside after my first week, “Listen Glory, we don’t work like this here. You can’t finish work scheduled for one week in one day. You would get us in trouble when you go back to school and this job is all we have to earn a living from. So we have decided to split the work for everyday of the week. Once you’re done with the portion for the day, that’s it. You can’t do anymore until tomorrow, ok?” I understood.
The supervisor of the department was a young man who truly touched my heart. He showed me such favor like I have never experienced before and when it was time to go back to school, they sent me forth happily. I promised to visit whenever I got the chance. My plan was to save some money and buy a wonderful gift to express my gratitude to the supervisor. While I was still in school and hoping to save for that worthy gift, I got news that the young man passed on.
It was a very painful experience and a major turning point in my life. Though I wrote him a poem that was read during his funeral service, I took a decision that day never again to delay the expression of gratitude. Since then, I don’t wait until I have enough. I don’t wait until the end. I learned from that experience, to appreciate people as I go. What that has done for me is that at the end of the day, when eloquent speeches are being made, I have nothing much to say. It has been delivered in bits and pieces over time.
Kindness is one of the richest resources available to mankind yet, in these times when the focus is on self-gratification, it has become a rare commodity. That is why it can be distressing to let down those who went out of their way to be kind to us. It is easy to take love for granted, to feel a sense of entitlement toward the goodness of those who care. It doesn’t cost much to be appreciative. What costs is when we are thankless or like Jesus experienced, we walk away and never return to say, “Thank You.”
It is easy to get carried away by our pilling needs that we forget to be thankful for little mercies that see us through each day. It is easier to remember all the prayers God is yet to answer than the deliverances He worked without our being aware of or asking. It is easier to remember the wrongs we were dealt than the favors we enjoyed here and there, in the hands of those who don’t owe us. Appreciation is a conscious choice we must make or we will forget and be ungrateful.
While ingratitude cuts off essential help, the attitude of gratitude releases us to live with a conscience that is free to embrace and ready to explore. Take a break, look back, look around, look up and down, note those who have touched your life, do something that shows them you appreciate the help they have been. I pray that we owe no one nothing but love. May we never fall short in expressing our gratitude to God and to those He uses to add value to our lives, amen.
Glory!