The Blessing of Saying Thank You

One of the easiest and most overlooked things you can say to someone is thank you. I always see it as a way to show gratitude to someone, no matter how big or small the task may be. I especially have been saying it to those that don’t hear it. Every Sunday, I intentionally tell the singers and musicians thank you for leading us in worship. As someone who gets placed a lot on the schedule to play guitar or bass in a more supporting role, they often get overlooked for their role in worship. But by simply saying thank you, you show appreciation for their small contribution to the grander picture.

So often I see people say thank you to those that are a lot more vocal(metaphorically and figuratively). And while I don’t want people to stop doing that, I want them to also acknowledge those are often overlooked. So why say thank you to the least of these. It provides encouragement. It’s gratitude for the minor things that are usually not acknowledged and it shows that we recognize the hard work put in for the task. It will also allow them to want to do it again. I was once talking to a friend and an older couple came up and thanked him for his vocal prose. There is nothing wrong with that but I also happened to be in the same group and I felt hugely underappreciated. By merely saying thank you, it encourages a person to continue to do good work.

I think also in a world that tells us that love is conditional and only based on what we can get from one another rather than love someone without expectation, we only say thank you when we get something from them. When we thank you for the minor things even if they aren’t directly towards us, it shows appreciation for who that person is and who God has made them to be. I know someone right now where it feels that I am pulling the majority of the friendship, but the way that I can show that agape love to them is by showing gratitude in the little things that they do for people and the grander church.

I feel that I am a little all over the place when it comes to this topic(I did say some of my thoughts would be total stream of consciousness). But I think the main thing to take away from all this is to say thank you more(I know I’m trying). So thank you for taking the time to read this and live out in gratitude.

“[Address] one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ” Ephesians 5:19-20