How many of you remember the days of people expressing thanks? I certainly remember them well. I am saddened to say that this seems to be declining in recent years. Why?
When I received gifts from others, I was made to sit right down and write (yes.....write with a pen and ink on proper note paper) a thank you note. I tried to teach my children to do the same and I know that they have tried to teach theirs also. But, somewhere along the way the ball has been dropped! Fewer and fewer are sending "formal" thank you notes by mail. What is even sadder than that is fewer and fewer are expressing thanks in any way. So many these days don't even thank others verbally.
I wrote many thank you notes with this ink pen given to Doyal by my parents when he graduated college back in 1956.
Here's something I fail to understand. We have instant access to the ability to express our thanks and yet we do not take advantage of it. Most of the people I know have cell phones and instant messaging in several forms such as text, email, Facebook, and the list goes on. In addition to this, most of these same people spend hours each day on said phones. The phone is rarely out of sight or sound these days. It seems to me it would be very easy to send an instant thank you these days and times. (I still love hand written notes but I'll accept any acknowledgment.)
Here are a few examples:
Recently we sent three gifts to family members. These were not small gifts. Two were over $100 each and a lot of loving work went into them. One was not so expensive and no work went into it. The day the later received theirs I received a text thanking us. Then yesterday we a proper thank you note from the entire family! I waited 8 and 10 days from the time of shipping the other two to check to see if they had arrived. I hate asking if someone has received a gift as it seems I'm asking to be thanked. I'm not! I just want to know so I can put a trace on the package. Sure enough, they had arrived earlier and both recipients had "been too busy" to respond. By the way, one of them is on Facebook often.
I still appreciate the old fashioned thank you note.
And thanks to Jessica and children for their sweet note.
Another example: Most weeks we sent $ to 3 loved ones. We hear from one every time it is received. From the others.....not so often.
Our children at church are no different. Rarely do the they express thanks without being prodded. However, last night I got a big hug and "You're the best Grandma ever" for a belated birthday gift. Both Dottie (the Sunday morning teacher) and I try to reinforce the need in the children to not only be thankful but to express thanks in all things.
We drive by and get Makayla each Sunday and Wednesday for church.
She rarely gets out of the car without saying, "Thanks."
Dottie, in yellow, and I are working with our children to teach them the joy of being thankful and expressing it. Dottie is a great example as she is a note writer.
A bit of humor here: Allen, seen here ready for church, seemed to always get clothes for birthdays. We taught our children that they didn't have to say they liked a gift if they didn't, but they did have to thank the giver as they had put time, thought and expense in getting the gift for them. Poor Allen learned this lesson at a very early age. We gave the children big birthday parties inviting their entire Bible Classes and the neighborhood children. Allen would open a gift (Clothes)and I would tell him who it was from. He would look at the person and sweetly say, "Thank you" then quickly grab another gift, tear into it only to repeat the same thing over and over. However, we always gave him toys and let each sibling give him a small toy as well. At least that way he got a few toys!
We received many gifts when we lived in The Fiji Islands and the children got a lot of practice writing thank you notes.
Julia, Allen's wife, is one of the best examples I know of an example to follow.
She not only writes many thank you notes, but many, many notes of encouragement each week.
Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.1 Thess 5:16-18
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