Thanking Him


"As he entered a village there, ten lepers stood at a distance, crying out, 'Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!' He looked at them and said, 'Go show yourselves to the priests.' And as they went, their leprosy disappeared. One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back to Jesus, shouting, 'Praise God, I'm healed!' He fell face down on the ground at Jesus' feet, thanking him for what he had done. This man was a Samaritan. Jesus asked, 'Didn't I heal ten men? Where are the other nine?'" Luke 17:12-17

Raising kids has been and will always be a difficult and hopefully a wonderfully rewarding experiencing. The tension of both meeting their needs and training them to be grateful is such a fine line to walk. We don't want them living longing for love nor do we want them living with an entitled attitude. One of the tools that helped us when our kids were little was a kids song entitled, "'Please' and 'Thank you', these are the magic words..."

Jesus made a point to spotlight gratitude in the story for today. Imagine being cured in an instant of a terminal disease. Leprosy was a death sentence, a slow and horrible death sentence. Jesus rescued them. He healed them as they obeyed him in faith. One, after seeing his skin restored, slammed on the brakes and came back to Jesus to say, "Thank you." The other nine were nowhere to be found.

Gratitude is fading in our culture. The tide of "I deserve" is rolling over all of us. If we're not paying attention, we'll get washed away in it. The antidote is thankfulness. Everything good thing in life is a gift from heaven above. Is thankfulness our pattern? Do our children routinely see us telling others, "Thank you", especially Jesus? If we had today only those things we thanked God for yesterday, what would we have left?

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