Have you noticed the deluge of fall decor for sale in the past decade or so that seeks to encapsulate the season in a few words? Whether it’s beautifully framed wall art, scripted platters or plush kitchen towels, the words “thankful, grateful, blessed” are everywhere.  Granted, in most cases, no Scripture references are included so these products could be marketed to those who audaciously direct their gratitude to Mother Earth. But as Christians, we are happy to have these visual reminders in our homes as we seek to be thankful people. The color palette for these items is overwhelmingly all about fall. My concern about “thankful, grateful, blessed” blanketing table scapes in November is that come Black Friday, those pieces will be carefully wrapped up with the pilgrim figurines, pumpkin candles, and cornucopia and then boxed and shoved to the back of the attic as Christmas decor is happily unpacked and placed all over the house. We are rightfully eager to celebrate the incarnation of our Lord Jesus but we are supposed to be brimming with gratitude all year round and not just when the calendar says it’s Thanksgiving. Gratitude is not a seasonal practice. Further, its presence or absence in the life of a believer is indicative of spiritual health. Expressing gratitude is not something to be minimized; it is just another item on our to-do lists. It is a virtue to be cultivated until we see our Savior face to face and then embark on praising Him for all eternity.

We cultivate gratitude by understanding that it’s so much more than counting our blessings. Jonathan Edwards helpfully explained that there are two types of gratitude—one is primary, and the other is secondary. The primary type, supernatural gratitude, expresses thankfulness to the Lord for who He is while the second type, natural gratitude, relates to thanking Him for what He has done. When we intentionally and regularly thank the Lord for who He is, we deepen our gratitude before we start thanking Him for what He has done. The former is relational and speaks to our intense gratitude to the Lord for His unparalleled attributes before we consider His generous gifts to us. Both types of gratitude are vital to our spiritual health. We must never tire of praising the Lord for His attributes even as we cannot begin to understand or appreciate the depths of how our Holy, Almighty God is both immanent and transcendent. He wants to hear from us how thankful we are for first for who He is and then for what He has done for us.

It is noteworthy that while we are thanking Him, our minds cannot simultaneously be worried and troubled. For those plagued with doubt of their salvation, gratitude has a secondary benefit. Unbelievers may occasionally attempt to thank God for a good outcome of a biopsy or survival after a close call, but they do not truly praise God for His holiness and sacrificial love. That kind of praise comes from those who know Jesus as Lord.

As we learn to focus on the grace we have in Christ, our thankful hearts spur us on to act like grateful people who respond by building up the church and spreading the gospel.

Paul’s word picture is very clear in Colossians 2:6-7. We are to be people who abound with thanksgiving and overflow with gratitude. Consequently, our gratitude to the Lord should spill over as we intentionally look for ways to show our gratitude to others for kindnesses big and small. Let’s start with common courtesy. The simple practice of routinely using words like “please” and “thank you” seems to be declining. We can encourage clerks and waitstaff by simply making eye contact, smiling and genuinely thanking them for their service. Sometimes, they look pleasantly surprised when we do so. Our children are watching us in ways we may not always consider. If we show more gratitude towards a store clerk than we do towards our own families, that’s a problem.

The Lord has given parents the sobering responsibility to teach children well, and that includes teaching them to be grateful and not entitled. The goal is not to shape them into moral little rule keepers but little ones who will grow up to love the Lord and know how He alone blesses us with all things. Wise parents teach their toddlers to express thanks in simple ways. How sweet it is to hear some baby talk form of “thank you” expressed as some of a child’s first words. Neglect of this emphasis can lead to an entitlement mentality that is sadly present in too many teenagers. Our society bombards them with the erroneous message that they deserve all good things. We seek instead to point them to Christ who left His throne in glory to come and die for us—and give us life abundant.

Our spouses need to know of our gratitude for them on a regular basis too. Never assume they tire of hearing specific ways we are thankful for them. Don’t let an occasional greeting card be the only avenue for this! Spoken words and written words are both helpful as we don’t succumb to the fallacy that our understood yet unspoken gratitude is sufficient.                                                                                                                                 Gratitude expressed in writing is certainly of value. Whether thanking someone for a gift or showing appreciation for what they might think was an unnoticed act of kindness or service, our efforts to show genuine gratitude in this tangible way can be used by the Lord in ways we never imagined.  It shows both the presence of humility and the absence of entitlement. How refreshing!

While it might be tempting to minimize the lack of heartfelt gratitude to the Lord as something we just need to work on while we handle seemingly more pressing items, let’s not fail to take it seriously. Thankful.  Grateful. Blessed. May those descriptors be the constant attitude of our hearts—not only when the leaves are falling.