When you’re a kid and someone gives you something, if your parents are anywhere in the vicinity, then you will hear those 4 magic words, “What do you say?” There’s just something missing in a “transaction” when the receiver doesn’t express some kind of gratitude after kindness has been shown to them. Oddly enough, the one who received kindness may feel true gratitude for what is given to them, but never express it.

Have you ever showed kindness to someone and never received gratitude for it? In a way, you feel a little bit of a rejection. When there’s no gratitude, it can feel like you are being pushed away. If someone was to continue to show ingratitude, they could literally push people out of their life by simply doing nothing. You know, someone’s ingratitude can  even push God away.

Do you want to improve every relationship in your life? Do you want to bring people closer to you, instead of pushing them away? Have you inadvertently pushed your spouse away and not even realized it? Do you want to take a step closer and restore lost relationships, then begin not only to be thankful, but express that thankfulness to those people in your life.

You might be amazed to know this principle of thankfulness not only applies to our relationships here, but our relationship with God as well. Do you feel far from God? Is it because you have not taken time recently to thank Him for everything He has done for you? What better time then now in this Thanksgiving season to look at our lives and thank those people, and God, for the wonderful acts of kindness they have shown to you. A little thankfulness can go a very long way.