I am sure everyone has experienced this at one time or another. You do something kind for someone and they fail to say ‘Thank You’ , they fail to acknowledge you did something nice for them or worse yet, they fail to show any sense of being grateful for what you did. That can tend to leave you with a bad taste in our mouth to ever do anything nice for anyone else again; which is the wrong response to have. It seems that more and more people today have become less and less grateful for anything; much less a random kind act from someone else. One thing I can say, that wasn’t the way my parents raised us kids and it wasn’t they way my wife and I raised our kids.

I looked up the definition of the word grateful and one of the definitions said: “Feeling or showing an appreciation of kindness; thankful” I have to sadly admit that I haven’t always been as grateful or even appreciative for someone’s act of kindness expressed towards me, as I should have been. I feel very bad for having to admit that but if we were honest with ourselves, many of us would have to confess that very same thing. Back when I was a young boy it seemed that people were more inclined to say ‘Thank You’ for a random act of kindness that was expressed to them; more inclined to be truly grateful for anything that was done for them.

As I look at society today, it seems people are in such a hurry, that everything is about them. They fail to even acknowledge someone’s kind actions towards them, much less be seen as grateful. People today feel they have the right to act the way they want and everyone else has to just deal with it. If you happen to allow someone cut ahead of you on the road, when they pass you up, you may even get a not so kind gesture that isn’t very pleasing because you’ve been holding them up all that time.

In Luke 17 we read when Jesus was on His way to Jerusalem, He came into contact with 10 men who had leprosy. Leprosy is not anything any one of us would want to have. We read these 10 men stood at a distance and called out to Jesus in a loud voice: “Jesus, Master, have pity om us!” If I was one of those 10 men who had leprosy, you can bet my voice would have been the loudest one there. Jesus tells these 10 men to go show themselves to the priests. Priests were the only one who could qualify if someone had been healed of leprosy. These 10 men did exactly that; what an amazing act of faith that was on their part. On their way to see the priests they were healed of this horrible disease. One could only imagine the sense of joy that must have come upon these 10 men.

No more pain, no more sadness, more importantly no more shame!! You can almost hear these 10 men as they spoke among themselves. As they looked at their new fresh clean skins, their jaws dropped in awe. While all this joy and excitement was taking place, one of the men made a huge decision; to go back and thank, show his gratitude, to the One who made all this possible  The other 9 men must have noticed this man begin to go back and wondered what he was doing. “You are healed my friend. It is time to begin living your new life. All that shame you once had because of leprosy is gone. People now will talk to you and show you respect; why in the world would you go back!!”

Not only did this man go back but as he did, you could hear him from afar praising God with a loud voice. When he finally reached where Jesus was we read he threw himself at the feet of Jesus and thanked Him with everything that was in him. You want to see a grateful heart, you are seeing one here.

November is the month where we set aside a day to express how thankful we are to the Lord for all He has done for us. The sad part is that sometimes we make more out of the huge meal which sits before us ready to be devoured than we do about Who we are to be thanking. Are you grateful my friend for all the Lord has done for you? Would anyone know you are grateful? Thank You are words that can easily roll off our tongues; a grateful heart can only be seen by the Lord. May our hearts be filled with His praises, with thanksgiving and gratitude for all the Lord has done for us!!!