“Don’t forget to say please and thank you.”
I can’t tell you how many times I would hear my family say this to me growing up. It’s almost a reflex now. “Thanks!” signs off my emails, acknowledges compliments, and receives UberEats deliveries.
It got me thinking. Is my “Thanks!” toward God second nature? A reflex?
If I’m being truthful, the answer is no.
Especially over the past year, and many times before, I’ve gone to God in prayer thinking, “What on earth have I got to be thankful for?”. This hasn’t worked out, that friendship broke down, that job application got rejected, that family member passed away. Being thankful when things don’t feel good is hard.
But as I reflected at the beginning of 2021, I was asking God for a new attitude that would help me through times where things didn’t feel good. God simply reminded me; “Georgia, I paid the ultimate price for you.”
What have I not got to be thankful for?
Jesus lived for me as the perfect example, died for me as the perfect sacrifice.
Woah. God got me good there.
Psalm 100 reminds me: “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.”
True thankfulness towards God isn’t a quick “Thanks!” like I’m collecting a coffee. It’s not acknowledging his goodness when it feels good. I realise more and more as I ask God to open my eyes, that thankfulness is:
Found in his ultimate sacrifice for me (everything else he does for me truly is a bonus).
Found in the strangest details of my day (a good cup of coffee is a reason for me to be thankful).
The beginning and the end to my prayers. Because he deserves it.
Love, Georgia x
RHRG Family
