For many people in the UK, learning to to say thank you is drilled into children from a young age. Even before they can string a sentence together young children can say “thank you”. British politeness demands that we say thank you whenever we have received something from someone else. Sometimes the thank yous are genuine and heartfelt and ,on occasions, just the well-practiced habit. But what if if saying was more than simply good manners and helpful habit. What if saying thank you could change your life and change other people’s live?

Changing the lives of others

People do all kinds of good, sacrificial and generous things for others. Some are paid to do these things while others voluntarily do them because it helps them in some way. There are some people who want to provide great service for others for no other reason than they want to show genuine love and kindness to other people. All of these people who serve us in some way would be encouraged and boosted by heartfelt word of thanks from us. We can make an assumption that these people know that are doing a good job and that they are feeling good and enthusiastic. But this is not necessarily the case, despite appearances. Our words of thanks and appreciation have the potential how to make a massive impact on people even this very day!

Changing our lives

When we have good things in our lives and people have been kind to us, saying thank you you helps us to appreciate and savour the good things. When we’re feeling good true thankfulness can make us feel even better.

But when we are feeling rotten and low, our words of thanksgiving can be be truly transformative. Being genuinely grateful for the little things helps us to recognise the even though there are big things that are wrong in our lives,at least we have all of these little things that are good. When we begin to count our blessings we realise just how many of them we have! And for those who know God personally, on top of the everyday blessings they can give thanks for God’s kindness, his mercy, his forgiveness, they can rejoice in his unfailing love for them. Christians can thank God for good things in their life, as well as for the huge list of God’s acts of kindness and then they can move onto God’s wonderful character traits. There is so much to be grateful for.

When a person truly engages with the practice of thanksgiving they usually find their mood lifts and may become much more joyful and positive.

So may I encourage you to say thank you even more often! Make it a habit everyday and see if you notice the difference in you and the difference in others.