Contact Me

If you enjoy my blog and would like to contact me, you may reach me at this email: dena.netherton@gmail.com

Some of my stories are published in:
A Cup of Comfort Devotional for Mothers and Daughters (Adams Media, 2009)
Chicken Soup: What I Learned from the Dog (2009)
Love is a Flame (Bethany House, 2010)
Extraordinary answers to Prayer (Guideposts, 2010)
Love is a Verb (Bethany House, 2011)
Big Dreams from Small Spaces (Group Publishing, 2012)

Thursday, November 5, 2009

Who do I Thank?

Some years back, I was a guest at a family's Thanksgiving celebration. Just before the meal was served, the hostess instructed us each to share one thing we were thankful for this season.

Most of the family shared things like being thankful for, "good health," "getting a good job," "passing my algebra mid-term."

No acknowledgement of God as the giver of these blessings. Hmmm.

The meal was great and I really enjoyed spending time with the family. Just before leaving I thanked the host and hostess for their hospitality and stepped out into the frosty November night air.

I thought about it the next day: does thankfulness count when you receive a gift but don't bother to thank the giver? Since I received something, someone must have been involved in giving me that something.

If you gave somebody a gift, how would you feel if the recipient just walked away and said, "I'm so thankful," but never acknowledged you?

The phrase, "Thank you," has two words: "Thank" and "you." It's actually an abbreviated form of "thanks be to you."

I hope we, as a nation, never forget to acknowledge God as the Great Giver. We are the thankers, but He is the Thankee.

"Now thank we all our God, with heart and hands and voices
Who wondrous things hath done, in Whom His world rejoices.
Who, from our mothers' arms hath blessed us on our way
with countless gifts of love, and still is ours today." (Nun Danket, Rinkart/Cruger)

2 comments:

  1. Very appropriate post for Thanksgiving and lovely hymn.

    Susan

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  2. Thanks, Susan. My hich school choir director loved this hymn and we sang it each fall season. Can you imagine singing this hymn in high school nowadays?

    ReplyDelete