Telling you
she is grateful would be one thing. But, now, imagine she didn't say
any of those things, but turned to you and looked you right in the eyes
and said, "Thank you for doing this for me."
Wouldn't
that feel a whole lot nicer than just hearing indirectly about her
appreciation, even if the words were spoken right to you?
Suppose
you scrimped on your own personal comfort in order to purchase a
smartphone for your teenager. Even, "Yay! I have an iPhone!" would not
be as validating of your sacrifice as if he said, "Thank you for giving
me this."
If you stepped up and took an
extra turn filling the dishwasher for your partner, would you hope to
hear, "I'm glad the dishes are clean"?
We don't
necessarily provide gifts and service to others in order to be thanked,
but being thanked directly certainly validates us better than just
hearing that the person liked it, does it not?
Saying
you're grateful is an expression of appreciation, but not a direct
thank you. If you heard someone to whom you gave a gift say, "I'm grateful I
have this," wouldn't you kind of look around to see who they were
talking to, besides you?
And yet, more and
more, here is what I here people say when they pray: "We're grateful for
this beautiful day. We're grateful we could meet. We're
grateful for the moisture. We're grateful for the gospel. We're
thankful for our families."
We
aren't talking to each other, telling each other what we are
grateful for, like we would as an exercise around the Thanksgiving
table, are we? If we believe
when we're saying a prayer that we are talking to Heavenly Father, should we not talk to Him directly? Praying is our chance to say whatever we would like to
say to Him! Should we just mention in passing that we like His gifts?
Would it not be a lot better say, "I thank Thee" to Him directly?
