I think of myself as a pretty grateful person. Most of the people I know consider me someone fairly focused upon gratitude. So, imagine my dismay when a friend called me onto the carpet for being…well…ungrateful.
Ack! I was horrified. How could that be, I wondered? It seemed that I hadn’t said I was grateful loudly or clearly enough-or enough time (sometimes once isn’t enough), and some other words and actions had simply overshadowed my gratitude causing it not to be felt or heard.
So, today I spent some time sending out emails saying “thanks” to some people who have done nice things for me recently. I showed up on Facebook and posted on my friends’ walls telling them I was grateful for actions they have taken on my behalf. And I reiterated to my friend–the one nice enough to tell me what she thought about how I was behaving (and to tell me she knew my heart and that my actions weren’t “who I really was”)–how grateful I was for what she had done for me recently. And now, I’m going to be sure to thank her for being courageous enough to speak up.
It is so important to feel grateful. However, it really is important to behave in a grateful manner and to speak words of gratitude all the time. While we say prayers of gratitude all the time for everything God gives us (in Judaism we call these blessings because we say, “Blessed are you, God, who…”), we need to remember to also say thank you and bless those people around us and with us ever day who…give us friendship, tell us the truth, help us obtain our goals, listen to our problems, play with us, support us, remember our birthdays, love us, feed us, get us where we are going, join us for meals, cook for us, work with us, etc.
Ask yourself now: When was the last time you expressed gratitude? Then go express…loudly and clearly.
