The two greatest commandments that God has given us are to love Him with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and love our neighbor as ourselves. To show our love to our God and neighbor is to show our appreciation. We have already talked about showing our appreciation to God is a significant part of our spiritual walk from our previous daily devotion, but showing our appreciation to others is also very important. By appreciating others, we allow God to use our lives to show His appreciation to others. We always represent God in our lives.
How do we show appreciation to others? One way we show appreciation to others is to say the phrase "thank you," especially when they showed kindness to us. Let us not hesitate to thank others because this is one way we show our appreciation. As we show our appreciation to one another, we are fulfilling the commandment of God to love one another. Moreover, we need to say "thank you" to others rather than showing our appreciation only with our actions. Some of us maybe not comfortable saying "thank you" to others, but the Bible gives us many examples to express our appreciation with our words. We need to do both. People want to see our appreciation through our words and actions. If you do not have "thank you" in your language, say it in English and explain it to them.
There are so many things that we can thank for in this Thanksgiving season. I want to encourage us to thank those who have blessed, helped, and provided for our needs this year. As we show our appreciation to those people who have blessed our lives, we are going to experience the joy and peace of God in our hearts because we are grateful for all the wonderful things that God has done in our lives through them. We also bless those who bless us by thanking them, so let us start blessing one another; thus, we fulfill God's commandment to love one another.
Ask yourself these questions: how do I express my appreciation to others? Am I willing to show my appreciation to others? Who are the people that I can show my appreciation for this thanksgiving season?
Write down all the worries that you are facing today and lift them up to God.
Prayer:
Father in Heaven, thank you for those people that you use to bless my life. Please help me to show my appreciation to them. Please help me not hesitate to say "thank you" to those who show kindness to me. May you bless them this Thanksgiving season. Please help me now with (mention your prayer requests). In the name of Jesus, I pray. Amen.