Why do we give thanks?

This week my husband and I attended a training workshop every morning related to our ministry with Wycliffe Bible Translators. Although it seemed important for me to go, I really did not want to be there.  I find sitting that long is hard on my body and I had plenty of other things I would rather have been doing.

Since I didn't have a lot of time and energy for anything else, I did not blog my thankfulnesses. In fact I didn't even think my thankfulnesses, because I wasn't thankful!

Today the last session was on, guess what--gratitude!

It was a good reminder and encouragement to keep going with this. I wonder, maybe if I had pushed myself to think about and express my gratitude in my blog this week, maybe I would have felt grateful in spite of the workshop and even had more energy.

In that last session the leader asked, "Why do we give thanks?" Here are some of the answers people gave:

•  God instructed us to
•  It helps me not take things for granted
•  It is central to the rest of life –in Romans, chapter 1, it shows that a lack of thankfulness leads to a very negative downward spiral. Original sin is possibly even a result of lack of gratitude—Adam and Eve focused on the one thing they did not have--fruit from the tree of "the knowledge of good and evil"--and forgot to be thankful for the fruit from all the other trees they did have.
• Expressing gratitude for things others do for us helps maintain and even create relationship
• Makes me more grateful when I express gratitude and then I usually start to notice other things to be thankful for
• Gives joy for the day
• Can break a worry "train of thought." Not possible to worry at same time as being thankful
• Reminds me of God’s faithfulness

The leader said that "Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it."

What are some things you are thankful for? Please leave comments telling of something you are thankful for: