We are commanded, my friends, to live in thanksgiving daily, always returning thanks for whatsoever we receive.

Why? Does God need our gratitude? No, we do.

I will never forget the Christmas of 2006. Shaina wanted a keyboard for Christmas.
I mean she really wanted a keyboard! We looked at used ones, but the cost was too much. Every chance she got though, Shaina would play one and just dream. As young ones are want to do, she pestered us incessantly wanting a keyboard.

Finally I sat her down and I explained, “We just can’t afford it.” But then I said, “Be patient though, me dear, and I promise I’ll get you one. All good things come to those who wait.”

She never said another word about it, but we knew she was mightily disappointed. Then – for some reason, we felt as though we should make the sacrifice and get it for her. We did.

So on Christmas morning we opened our presents, but the keyboard was hidden away. Shaina seemed content and happy with what she’d received, and I noticed that.

Then when all the presents were opened, Mom led the family into the laundry room. There was the prized drum set for Hannah, the guitar for Travis and Sherise, and the keyboard for Shaina.

Hannah screamed and danced through the house. Travis and Sherise picked up the guitar and became to “plink.” But Shaina – she took one look at the keyboard, screamed with excitement, and then turned and buried her face in my chest, and just held on to me. But at first I thought she was laughing. Then I realized she was crying – not just crying, she was sobbing – with joy. For a long moment she just held on to me and cried, and cried, and cried. No one noticed, but – Dad was crying too – as I do every time I think about that moment. I’m not sure there’s anything a father appreciates more than a truly grateful child. Her tears of gratitude were more than ample payment for our sacrifice.

“… God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son …” (John 3:15)

Just imagine the joy the Father and the Son will share with us when we with true understanding fall at their feet, and bathe those feet with tears of joy and gratitude. That child who seeks to understand what has been done for them [him], and never stops expressing it is the child that a parent loves to bless.

So, practice your gratitude like Shaina practices piano. It is music to our Father, and is the mark of a cultivated mind. To perfect gratitude is to master the natural man, and to know God.