THANK YOU, GOD

As children, most of us are taught to be polite and to say “please” and “thank you.” It’s usually a matter of us demanding something from our parents, and being asked, “what’s the magic word?” We say, “please,” and grab for the cookie. But before we can get away, it’s always, “and what do you say?” We mumble “thank you,” and take off. As we get older, we usually find that being polite, being grateful, gets us farther than simply demanding something and taking it without acknowledging our appreciation.

As submitters, we’re very aware of how important it is to be appreciative of God’s blessings. It’s clearly a trait of a believer.

GOD rewards those who are appreciative. [3:144] 

Therefore, you shall eat from GOD's provisions everything that is lawful and good, and be appreciative of GOD's blessings, if you do worship Him alone. [16:114] 

Therefore, you shall worship GOD alone, and be appreciative. [39:66] 

We showed him the two paths, then he is either appreciative, or unappreciative. [76:3]  

In verse 46:15, we are given clear instructions for declaring our intention to truly worship God alone:

"My Lord, direct me to appreciate the blessings You have bestowed upon me and upon my parents, and to do the righteous works that please You. Let my children be righteous as well. I have repented to You; I am a submitter.” [46:15]

So, do we really have that much to be grateful for? Just the sun and the moon, the night and the day, the earth and the sky, plants, animals, mountains, rain…. Just everything!

We’ve talked a couple of times in our Quran studies about what we would do if we had to control all of the things God controls every

minute. If we just had to regulate our bodies. Tell our heart to beat, our lungs to breathe, our eyes to blink. You’d go crazy! There would be no time for anything, except, “Heart, beat! Wait, take a breath. Heart, beat! Chew. Blink. Heart, beat!” Yet, every second, all those things go on and we take them for granted. God doesn’t begrudge us that. He doesn’t demand that we remember all those things constantly. He’s taking care of it. But it would be good for us to occasionally stop and be appreciative of how well the system works.

Everybody is grateful for the same things—good health, food to eat, air to breathe, a roof over our heads. Big things that we take for granted. Again, we need to stop now and then, and thank God that we have those blessings. At the same time, everybody has different things to be thankful for. I’m appreciative of my dogs and the joy they bring me. I’m grateful for warm weather in the desert and the beautiful mountains that surround Tucson.

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