21 Days To Cultivate A Grateful HeartSample

Day 19: Tell Someone Why You’re Thankful for Them 

Take a minute and read each of the verses. 

Studies show that gratitude helps you make friends, deepens friendships and makes you friendlier. I don’t know about you, but I want to be regarded as a friendly person. When I cultivate a grateful heart, the people around me are impacted. 

Celebrate the people you’re thankful for. We do this in our prayers and we do this with our words both out loud and in writing. A personal word of encouragement from someone expels the lies from the enemy and the doubts in our heads. If someone tells me they’re thankful for me, I’m immediately grateful for them, their words and the effects of their words on my heart. 

Handwritten thank you’s are one of the most tangible ways to share and show gratitude. Often, when I receive a written thank you it comes at the exact moment I need to hear what the writer is saying. It’s as if God is speaking directly to my heart through them. 

Check out this quote from C.S. Lewis that speaks to this: 

“It is important to keep on giving thanks. Otherwise, as one continues to pray for the others who have not yet been relieved, one simply fails to notice how many of one’s intercessory prayers have been granted—never notices how the list of ‘Thank-you’s’ grows and perhaps outstrips the list of mere ‘Please’s’ ” (C.S. Lewis, in a 1955 letter to Mary Van Deusen) 

REFLECT: Who are you thankful for today and why? Have you told them lately? Who do you need to reach out to with a personal thank you or gift of gratitude? 

RESPOND: Take a minute today and write a good old fashioned thank you card. You’re not done until you deliver it or put it in the mail. As you send your card, lift up the person you’re sending it to, praying specific prayers of thanksgiving for them.