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Why Don't We Say Thank You?

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Why Don't We Say Thank You?

I presented this question this past weekend at church to the 4th and 5th grade students that I was teaching. Here are some of the answers that they came up with:

Fear
Excitement
Forget to
Don't want to
Ashamed
Don't think they deserve it
Thank you is understand

I want you to read a story from Bible that I saw in a little different light over the last few weeks and I want to show you what God showed me.

The story is found in Luke 17:

“Now on his way to Jerusalem, Jesus traveled along the border between Samaria and Galilee. As he was going into a village, ten men who had leprosy met him. They stood at a distance and called out in a loud voice, 'Jesus, Master, have pity on us!' When he saw them, he said, 'Go, show yourselves to the priests.' And as they went, they were cleansed. One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice. He threw himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him—and he was a Samaritan. Jesus asked, 'Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? Has no one returned to give praise to God except this foreigner?' Then he said to him, 'Rise and go; your faith has made you well.'" - Luke 17:11-19 NIV

1. They cried out to Jesus
Life had these guys pretty down. Life had been beating them up for years. They had leprosy. Leprosy was not a diagnosis you wanted to hear from the doctor. You did not celebrate and it wasn't on your bucket list.

Leprosy was a crippling disease that infected your skin causing decay and body parts to fall off and it was highly contagious. People who had leprosy were shunned away and made to leave the city. They had to leave family, friends and other loved ones.

Life had them beaten down. Life has its way of doing that to us all sometimes. When life becomes too much we do the same thing that these men did - we cry out to Jesus. We ask Him for help - for peace.

2. They did what Jesus said to do
Jesus always tells people what to do. God does as well. It's all in the pages of Scripture. As I mentioned in the last post about Noah [1] God told him everything that he needed to do and Noah did it.

Jesus told these men to go to the priest. Now they could have thought Jesus was crazy and argued with him saying "How are we supposed to do that - we have leprosy they won't even let us in town?!" But they didn't. They turned and went and were healed. The Bible doesn't tell us how long they walked - but I think as soon as they started in the right direction they were healed.

3. They didn't say thank you
I believe here that they were just overwhelmed with excitement that they simply forgot. I mean one second they had leprosy and the next they didn't. I would have been a little excited myself. The 9 men who didn't say thank you were probably just as thankful as the one that did.

But the Bible tells us they were Samaritan. The Samaritans and Jews didn't get along. So some could say that because of this they just simply didn't want to say thank you to Jesus who was a Jew.

Maybe they were afraid or ashamed.

Whatever the reason, this story got me to thinking - Why don't I say thank you? Why am I so often with the 9 instead of the one?

My mom helped me out last week. She came and picked up my kids from the bus stop and took them home and watched them for a couple of hours until I got off work. She also made me and them some dinner. We sat and talked for a little bit and then the kids and I got around and left. I came home and put the kids to bed and started looking over the above verses in Luke 17. Then it hit me - "I never said thank you to my mom!!"

But that doesn't mean that I wasn't thankful for what she had done and she knows that I am thankful for how she helped me. But sometimes people just need to hear the words - thank you.

4. Thank God
We just need to simply thank God for all that He has done and given us. We need to thank God for the people in our lives - and right now I am very thankful for those people in my life. We need to thank Him for family and friends. We need to thank Him for giving us another day, for providing, caring and protecting us.

But God doesn't need to hear our thanks. We need to hear our thanks! Giving praise and thanks to God helps us be more grateful.

“Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus." - 1 Thessalonians 5:18 NIV

[1] Click the link to read the blog post referenced in this post 
- The Dawn - part 8 - God's Man
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