This Is Why We Must Be Thankful For The Small Things In Life

This blog is about why we must be thankful for the small things in life and not just the big things. Discover the joy and benefits of being thankful.

Brethren, I want to use a video as a way of introduction to this short message. Some of you might have already watched it. I, myself, have watched this many times, but every time I watch it, it just pricks my heart. The video is heart-warming and yet, it is sad to know that there are a lot of people who live and die having this disability. The video is about people’s reaction when they hear for the first time.

Please watch it before proceeding.

 

According to World Health Organization, over 5% of the world’s population – 360 million people – has disabling hearing loss (328 million adults and 32 million children).

I’m not here to talk about deaf people, but I want us to watch this video and appreciate the small things in our lives that we often take for granted. Brethren, sometimes we forget to be thankful and if we do become thankful, we are only thankful for the BIG things and not the small things. Isn’t it true that it is so easy to become thankful for the big things?

This Is Why We Must Be Thankful For The Small Things In LifeWe are thankful for the significant accomplishments. We thank God we graduated. We thank God when we pass the board exam. We thank God when we have a new job. We thank God for buying a new car. We thank God for acquiring a new house. And the list just goes on and on.

However, we forget about the small stuff. It is crucial for us to be thankful for the little things in life. You know why? Because when we don’t get the big things in life, the small things will remind us that we are still blessed. And sometimes, the small things that we should be thankful for are the biggest things that we ought to be thankful for.

How many of us had really taken the time to thank God for our sense of hearing? Or the sense of sight? Or the sense of smell? Can you imagine waking up one morning and you can’t hear anything or you can’t see anything? Those are the small things, which are in reality, big things that we should be thankful for.

How about our lives brethren? Are we thankful for being alive? Or are we too busy looking at the things that we don’t have that we forget about the unimaginable and incredible blessings that God has already given us? What was once a miracle has become an everyday thing for us.

Life itself is a miracle, but because it has become part of our daily lives, we thought of it as something ordinary and common. Living does not excite us anymore. We forget how special our lives are.

Another extraordinary blessing that we must be thankful for is our calling. God’s calling is a miracle that we also need to be thankful for. However, because it has been with us for so long, it has become too common that we forget to be thankful for it.

So brethren, how thankful are we? Are we thankful as an individual? Are we a thankful church?

I remember a quote that says, “I cried because I don’t have shoes, then I met a man without legs.”

I want to add to that.

We complain about our food not being too delicious, then we meet someone who doesn’t have to eat. We complain how small our house is, then we meet someone who sleeps on the street. We complain about our job, then we meet someone who is unemployed. We complain about how awful our lives are, then we meet someone who just died.

Life is too short to complain. Be thankful for the things that we have. Life is more BEAUTIFUL when we do. 🙂

Just yesterday while buying fruits, a young boy approached me and asked for money. Instead of giving him money, I just gave him one of the fruits I bought. He immediately got the fruit and just walked away. I called him back. I told him, “What should you say?” He gave me a shy smile and said, “Thank you.” The fruit vendor saw this and commented, “Kids are like that. They don’t know how to be thankful anymore.”

Isn’t it sad, brethren that the future generation of our country is ungrateful? Don’t even know how to say thank you for what they receive. Undeniably, we are all unthankful sometimes especially when we don’t get our way.

I remember the story of Job. In just one day, he lost almost everything that he had. Bad news after bad news, he learned about all the things that he lost. He lost his oxen, donkeys, sheep, camels, servants, and worst of all, he lost his children. In all these, what did Job said? Let’s go to Job 1:21.

“And said, Naked came I out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return thither: the Eternal gave, and the Eternal hath taken away; BLESSED BE THE NAME OF THE ETERNAL.”

Can you imagine suffering like Job and still, have the audacity and boldness to worship God? Can we also praise God in the face of adversities? Can we still be thankful in the midst of calamities?

This is the level of thankfulness that we all need to develop. The moment that we lost everything, can we still find the courage to say, “thank you?”

The Bible does not just show us the importance and benefits of gratitude. God actually COMMANDS us to be thankful. Let’s read II Thessalonians 5:18:

“In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Yahshua for you.”

Since God commanded it, then we can conclude that it is a sin not to be thankful. Ingratitude can lead to a lot of sins in our lives.

Now here’s a challenge I want all of us to make; write down at least five things you are thankful for before you go to bed. Do this 30 days straight. After that, compare yourself today and 30 days from now. Discover how much impact and difference gratitude can do in your life. So I hope you take this challenge seriously. Write down five things you are thankful for each day before going to bed.

I hope that we can be more thankful. Let us be obsessed with it. Let us make it our habit, a reality in our day to day lives. In fact, being thankful is among the best ways to stay positive throughout our day. Let us not just be thankful for the big things but also for the small things – small things such as our sense of hearing, our sense of sight, the delicious cooking of our mom or wife, when someone opens the door for us, for the chair that you are sitting on right now, for the air we breathe, and so on and so forth.

Let me tell you that no matter what circumstances you are in right now, there will always, always, ALWAYS something to be thankful for.

So, let us be thankful and live a more joyful and blessed life.


Here’s a highly recommended book that you should check out. The title is, “Radical: Taking Back Your Faith from the American Dream” by David Platt. It gained 4.6 out of 5 stars from over 1500 Amazon reviewers.

Radical Taking Back Your Faith from the American Dream.JPGProduct Description:

What is Jesus worth to you?

It’s easy for American Christians to forget how Jesus said his followers would actually live, what their new lifestyle would actually look like. They would, he said, leave behind security, money, convenience, even family for him. They would abandon everything for the gospel. They would take up their crosses daily…

But who do you know who lives like that? Do you?

In Radical, David Platt challenges you to consider with an open heart how we have manipulated the gospel to fit our cultural preferences. He shows what Jesus actually said about being his disciple–then invites you to believe and obey what you have heard. And he tells the dramatic story of what is happening as a “successful” suburban church decides to get serious about the gospel according to Jesus.

Finally, he urges you to join in The Radical Experiment–a one-year journey in authentic discipleship that will transform how you live in a world that desperately needs the Good News Jesus came to bring. (Get your copy here.)


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9 thoughts on “This Is Why We Must Be Thankful For The Small Things In Life

  1. In 2016, I kept a gratitude journal. Each day I wrote down something I was thankful for. I tried not to repeat anything. It really did keep me in a positive state of mind. I am thankful for your blogs. They are so uplifting, encouraging, and give me something to meditate on during the day! Keep up the excellent work!

    • Thanks Gayle! I also started to have a gratitude journal but due to my busyness, I haven’t done it for a while. I’m planning to start again next month. 🙂

      Thanks for your kind words. To God be the glory. 🙂

  2. Pingback: Why We Must Stop Murmuring and How to Overcome It | Becoming Christians

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