Heavenly Father, though we do not deserve Your goodness, still You provide for all our needs of body and soul. Grant us Your Holy Spirit that we may acknowledge Your gifts, give thanks for all Your benefits, and serve You in willing obedience; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and he holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
“What have you ever done for me!?” she screamed. Then she turned away from her parents and stormed out of the house in which she had been raised, wearing the clothes her parents had given her, started the car they let her use, and drove off in a pique.
The scene above is really a montage of several incidents I have experienced firsthand and second-hand as people have related them to me. Sometimes they were the parents telling the story. Sometimes it was the young person, now somewhat older and wiser, who shamefacedly related this incident. Gratitude is not a natural posture for human beings. It must be learned and taught. Its absence often makes us bitter, sad, and defensive. Being an ingrate also makes us very hard to live with and isolates us. I know a man who can only see the failures of his parents who have never stopped loving him. No, they were not perfect, but he is not perfect either. For all the validity of his observations these observations miss a much larger and more important point. They love him. He should be grateful to them before all else, and that posture should color every interaction with them.
We pray in this prayer that God teach us gratitude for all God’s benefits. When we get bogged down in the pedestrian lives we lead, when we are in the midst of difficult things, or when we face large challenges, I find that gratitude is a great blessing from God. It does not take away the problems, but it does put them into a perspective. The Lord who has blessed me hitherto will not abandon me now. I do not know what will happen, but I know that God’s love will be mine no matter what comes. Thank You God!