Today, I heard a “Thank you.”
The gentleman who said these words did so as a weekend of training for our small group leaders came to a close. He thanked the speaker, the leaders of our small group ministry, and all of the life group leaders. I really appreciated what he said. Expressing gratitude to these people was important–very important.
Far too often men and women serve in a variety of ways only to hear nothing. Absolutely nothing!
They serve and serve and the response is…
…Silence.
Or, they may hear something like this: “Uh the next time we have a seminar, let’s do this instead of that.”
Really?
No thank you. No gratitude. Now the guy is going to make suggestions to these people when he has not even thanked them for what they did?
I suspect that a “thank you” is long over due for some people.
Question:
Can you think of people in your world who really need to hear a word of gratitude from you? Name a few people who really need to hear this.
A good question. Now let me go off and see if I can find the answer : )
L.L., ok I hope you find the answer soon. 🙂
An excellent post as usual. We have so forgotten what it means to be gracious to one another and oh, how the consumer mentality has entered the Church. We feel entitled and when something doesn’t go our way, we’re marching right up to the person in charge or worse yet, the person that is providing the service, and rattling off our complaints. This is not a store with a customer service counter ready to respond to your complaints, this is the Kingdom. Let’s exhibit some Kingdom behavior and be gracious. If there are legitimate things that need to be corrected, by all means, address them with the right person, but at the right time and in a way that encourages rather than crushes. In the meantime, a “thank you” is simply that–“thank you”. But so concerned are we that people will think they did a good job that we’d rather address our criticisms versus acknowledging the time and effort that the person has put in.
Pat, you express this problem so well. I think you are right about our consumer mentality and spirit of entitlement driving much of this. I once witnessed a moment where several families had worked very, very hard to prepare for a particular day at a church. All of these people had put in a great deal of time on this. This special day included food, refreshments, etc. I was amazed to see see several people actually get upset because they did not like what was served. No thank you. No expression of appreciation. No recognition of hard work. It was amazing.
Anyway, I just think we all would do well to stop seeing ourselves as entitled and instead see ourselves as having been blessed by another’s willingness to show up early, work hard, etc. so that the rest of us can enjoy the fruits of their labor.
Jim,
you are always far ahead with your posts! I have some people in mind that I would really like to thank. I have done that already, but I believe that sometimes a “thank you” is not enough. I know that I will always stand by them, as the did so far and they will do every time I need them in the future. These kind of people we must never let go, otherwise we loose a very important piece of our life and soul. So, I would like to thank Vasileios and Dimitra, who they always stand by me. I adore them!
Excellent post once more! Have a great weekend!
Kalliope, I really like the point that you made in your comment. Expressing a “thank you” is a beginning but is not enough with some people. You make a good point about faithful friends. Such friends need to hear a “thank you” but perhaps just as important, they need to know how much we are grateful for them.
Perhaps it is important that they never be taken for granted or that somehow we feel entitled to their friendship and support. Maybe it is much more gracious to simply live as a grateful person, realizing that having such friends “who stand by me” is a real blessing.
Thanks, Kalliope.
thank you!