“Thank You’s!”  As I’m writing this I’m remembering a couple of thank you’s that I need to write.  Thank you’s seem to be a lost art.  We have had hundreds of people to our home, and received a handful of thank you’s.  It’s not what people do anymore.

Our boys write thank you’s.  They write them after Christmas as well as their birthdays.  We want to teach them the “art of the thank you.”  Why is a thank you so important?

Thank you’s show that you paused, you rummaged around and found that small stationary card and a stamp . . . AND the physical address to send it, and you wrote and SENT a thank you!  It is important.

True story:  I wrote a thank you once and it came BACK TO ME with a $5,000 check stapled to it and a note inscribed at the bottom of my thank you — “thank you for saying thanks.”  I look at this and surmize that this person was TIRED OF NOT GETTING thank you’s.

We can thank people for the following things:

• Meals at their home or a restaurant
• Gifts that were given
• Time that they gave
• Money donated
• Role model that they are
• Vision that they gave
• Lives that they live — their history

If we are honest, in some form or another we are all desiring to somehow “set ourselves apart” from the crowd.  Here is an EASY way to do it — SEND A THANK YOU.  This past spring and summer we had two functions at our home.  Each function had roughly 50 people attend.  I can think of only one thank you we received out of the two events combined.  This is nothing against the waves of people who did not write a thank you — it is more a statement of the person who actually took the time to write the thank you.

The person who wrote the thank you came from a home that enforced the “we write thank you notes” rule.  I only know this because I met the parents this summer.  This person truly set themselves apart — I barely can remember who was here, but I remember this couple for sure.

(Even in writing what I have wrote, I have thought of 5 thank you’s that I need to write.  Why?  Because people deserve after their efforts to know that it was noticed and cared about.)

Here are some bible verses that express “Thank You!”

Ruth 1:8
… May the Lord reward you for your kindness … (NLT)

Ruth 2:12
May the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge, reward you fully for what you have done. (NLT)

2 Samuel 2:6
May the LORD now show you kindness and faithfulness, and I too will show you the same favor because you have done this. (NIV)

Romans 1:8
… I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you … (NLT)

1 Corinthians 1:4
I always thank God for you because of his grace given you in Christ Jesus. (NIV)

2 Corinthians 9:13-14
Because of the service by which you have proved yourselves, men will praise God for the obedience that accompanies your confession of the gospel of Christ, and for your generosity in sharing with them and with everyone else. And in their prayers for you their hearts will go out to you, because of the surpassing grace God has given you. (NIV)

2 Timothy 1:3
… I thank God for you—the God I serve with a clear conscience, just as my ancestors did. Night and day I constantly remember you in my prayers. (NLT)

Numbers 6:24-26
The Lord bless you and keep you;
The Lord make His face shine upon you,
And be gracious to you;
The Lord lift up His countenance upon you,
And give you peace. (NKJV)
Have a great day, and THANK YOU for reading this blog!

Eric

 

PS – Thanks, Mom, for making me write thank you’s!