Grateful and Thankful

There's quite a bit in The Bible, both Old and New Testaments, about being grateful and thankful.These words are often used interchangeably, so, it made me wonder, what are the true definitions of both?  To get the answers, I turned to trusty Google and searched.   I was somewhat surprised to see a long list of hits approaching this question.  I read through a few of them (and some directly contradicted others) and quickly realized that a) I did not really have an original thought here (LOL), and b) I guess I'll just pick the one I like the best (read:  that is the easiest to understand) and run with it.

So, here goes.  Gratefulness is a state of being and thankfulness is an active expression (either in words or actions) of gratitude (as an aside, you'll frequently  find the word "praise" quickly following on the heels of the word "thankful" in the Bible).  I don't believe one can be truly thankful without first feeling grateful. Note that I said "be truly grateful"; this isn't to say that people don't have the tendency to mutter "thanks" with no real emotion behind the words; sort of like when we ask people "How are you?" and walk away before they have the chance to tell us how they are.

Anyway, what's brought this topic about of course is that tomorrow is Thanksgiving Day here in the US of A.  Hopefully most of us don't save one day of the year to reflect on gratitude and to give thanks; however, it is an opportune time to stop and perhaps give this more thought than usual. When I was in elementary school, my teacher had us make cloth books filled with pages of what we were thankful for (I'm pretty certain we wouldn't have comprehended the difference between thankful and grateful at that age so she just went with thankful).  

Thank you, Mom, for keeping this.  I am grateful ;-)

So in essence, what we in our little kid brains could both feel (gratitude) for and then express it.  As a guide, she had us use the letters of the alphabet.  I always chuckle when I come across and re-read this book because I was a terribly silly child.  Case in point:

My first "selfie"

A "two-fer"!

Actually that's three words, Amy

However, I did have a few sweet ones, too:

 Still am!  Oh, Buda was our cat and Bert was my Father's parrot.  I don't know if I was really thankful for Bert; he was sort of mean!

 Always...

Even at that age, always PC!  Seriously, I was and I am

Beginning in 2012, I started to keep  track of my "gratefuls".  Every morning, I jot down at least one thing from the previous day that I feel gratitude for. I express it, offer thanks, by writing it down in my little book and then reflecting on this in my prayer time by offering praise.   As simple as it is, doing this helps to keep me focused on what is good in this world and in my life while it also serves to diminish those things that I either I fret or worry about, or those that make me feel unpleasant emotions.  I have all of these little books near to hand, and routinely open them up and explore them.  I find this particularly helpful on certain days when I'm struggling to come up with something (yes, it does happen).  I go back to that date the year before, or the year before that, and find myself experiencing gratitude for something that occurred a long time ago.  This often brings to mind something I'm grateful for that I wouldn't have thought of otherwise.  So, I become grateful for my gratefuls!

Here are a few from this past year:

• A good Stephen Leader meeting
• Walking with Hesed and talking with neighbors
• A wonderful trip to Selby Gardens with my Mom and Mom B
• A long bike ride
• Hesed rang her potty bells
• A good message at church
• I survived the dentist
• Safely home from our trip
• A quiet day; took a cat nap with Pete
• Father's surgery went well

You get the point; some days I have some fairly significant things to be grateful for; other times, I am just happy for down time, or the ability to exercise.  Even in the midst of some pretty ca-ca times, I always look for something to write down in my book.  For example, when I was involved in a car accident in October, I wrote down:

• I'm ok, she's ok
• The kindness of the people offering to help
• Opportunity to trust (God)
• Mark

I'll wrap this up with a prayer I wrote for Thanksgiving a few years ago.  

Holy God, for bringing us together this day, we thank you.  For our family and friends not with us today, we thank you.  For seeing us through trying times, we thank you.  For smiles and laughter, we thank you.  For warm weather and sunny skies, we thank you.  For the food before us, we thank you.  For you constant and steadfast love, we thank you.  How precious O Lord is your constant love.  We find protection under the shadow of your wings.  We feast on the abundant food you provide; you let us drink from your river of goodness.  You are the source of all life, and because of your light, we see the light.  This is the day that you have made.  We will rejoice and be glad in it.  In Jesus' name we pray.  Amen.

Amen and Amen!

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

Mrs. B