Members and guests, the other day going through my mail I noticed a beautiful handwritten thank you card. The card was from a constituent who we were able to help with a State matter. She isn’t someone of great wealth but someone who genuinely appreciated what was done for her. Most people we serve don’t send notes so I am always touched when they do.
As children, many of our parents taught us to say please and thank you. Apart from being just good manners, humility and gratitude are good virtues. Forgetting to say thank you would be a painful experience for me when my mom was around. I am proud to say after a few short lessons I got the hang of it. Members, today I would like to take a few moments to pray on the virtue of gratitude.
The Roman philosopher Cicero said, “Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all others.”
Poet, singer Maya Angelou put it this way, “Let gratitude be the pillow upon which you kneel to say your nightly prayer. And let faith be the bridge you build to overcome evil and welcome good.”
Alain de Botton, a Swiss writer now living in the United Kingdom and a member of the Royal Society of Literature added this perspective, “Paying taxes should be framed as a glorious civic duty worthy of gratitude - not a punishment for making money.”
Melody Beattie, an American author took still another view, “Gratitude turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance and chaos into order, confusion into clarity, it makes sense out of our past brings peace today, and creates a vision for tomorrow.”
John Ortberg, the pastor of Menlo Park Presbyterian added a spiritual element. “Gratitude is the ability to experience life as a gift. It liberates us from the prison of self-preoccupation.”
“You look inside a packed moving van, but you cannot find a place for the last box. You take a chance, climb over all the other boxes and find there is just enough room at the top. If there were only room for one at the top, we would have only one brand of chocolate chip cookies, one brand of tea and only one kind of potato chips. We must never allow ourselves to be guided or stopped by what everyone else is doing. We must never allow ourselves to think we can only go so far because others are already there. If we want to keep our hands full and the goodness flowing to us, we must never forget to say, thank you for every little thing,” said noted spiritualist, Iyanla Vanzant.
On this day, in spite of how busy you are or how important your work, take a moment, find a reason to say thank you to someone. We can all start by thanking God for waking us up this morning and allowing us to be alive at this time.
“For this is the day that the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it.” Psalms 118:24
May this be God’s will.--AMEN.
