So in my November newsletter, I mentioned the book, "365 Thank You" by John Dralik. Again, I have not read the book but only read an article about the book in a Guidepost magazine while sitting at the dentist office. The book was about an author who by his own admission was wallowing in self-pity by all the hard knocks life had thrown him. His New Year's resolution was to write a thank you note to a different person every day for the entire year!
With this inspiration, In keeping with the theme of November being thankful, I decided to write a different person a thank you note each day for the entire month. First, to my surprise, it is really hard to write EVERY day! I send huge kudos to the author for sticking it out for a full 365 days. It is not that I am not grateful for all who have invested in my life but I wanted to write meaningful thank yous to each and it takes mental energy and time. I seem to be lacking in both! :)
With that said, I charged on. Another hurdle I found was thinking about who I was to write too. I asked God who He knew that I needed to show my gratefulness too. Who were the people of my past that had helped to mold me? Who did I need to in my heart and pen acknowledge my gratefulness too? This ended up an exciting time in my life. God brought to mind several people to me who had been instrumental to my life from even 30 years ago! A former Sunday school teacher, a mentor, a pediatrician to my children...just to name a few. I was blessed just writing them.
I didn't hear back from all and that wasn't my purpose. In fact, a funny on one...she apologized for not getting me a thank you note for sending her a thank you note! I told her not to worry that she had no need to thank me as she had blessed my life and that was more than enough.
Two replies from those I wrote stick out in my mind. I ran into one of the gals I sent one of my first thank you notes too, and it was moving for both of us. She came with tears in her eyes and a hug. She thanked me for letting her know she had impacted my life and told me how encouraged she was that her life was counting! The next was a Sunday school teacher from 30 years ago. He wrote back, "Your note has been fuel in our spiritual tanks!"
I am encouraged to continue writing thank yous. Not with the goal of daily, as I think I would go bonkers with my little brain, but perhaps sending them more often. God's Word is so true, "A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver." (Proverbs 25:11 KJV) We need to press on in saying/writing more fitly spoken words because who would not need some gold or silver right now!
I know I am supposed to tell you, as a Bosch distributor, the best Christmas gift is a Bosch Universal Mixer or perhaps the Nutri Mill grain grinder, but you know really a great Christmas gift would be to wrap a letter stating your gratefulness to individuals. Just a thought to throw out there.
"Pleasant words are as an honeycomb, sweet to the soul and health to the bones." Prov. 16:24 KJV
I hope you all see Jesus during this Christmas season and are blessed.
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