“People may forget what you said, or what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” Being grateful and expressing that gratitude are two different things, with what could be two different and significant outcomes. To make kindnesses a big thing, at least a bigger thing than most people do, can change lives. Not only your own but other people’s lives as well. From simple and little things such as when a door is opened for us, to more difficult kindnesses such as helping a neighbor move with everything in between. The majority of kindnesses are expressions of appreciation for things we do, such as helping a stranger into their coat or saying what a pretty dress you are wearing today. By doing those simple things for others I have seen faces light up and eyes shine like you had just bought them flowers. We can’t change the world but every one of us can make our world a little better, a little nicer by doing little things that brighten people’s lives. The question is how does a person or a society make a big thing out of what has been considered a little thing (little kindnesses). Jeff Reagan, shared his neighbor’s idea recently, and I was impressed with it, since it was simple and not particularly a time consuming thing to do. He wrote; “Neighbors invited his wife and him over for a get acquainted treat. As we sat down in the kitchen, I noticed something unusual on the kitchen counter. It was a large jar, with slips of paper tucked in it. Dozens of them, each folded so you couldn’t see what if anything was written there. “What’s that?” I asked, as my curiosity got the best of me. “It’s our ‘Gratitude Jar,’ our new friend said. And then she explained how it works. Each member of the family makes a point of writing down something they’re grateful for. They try to do it daily but it ends up being a few times a week. Then at the end of the year, or whenever the jar is good and stuffed, they gather around the dinner table, dump out the pieces of paper and enjoy a healthy reminder that they have a lot to be thankful for. Sometimes they do it on Thanksgiving; sometimes when a member of the family is feeling in the dumps. After all, we use so much time on our daily gripes and complaints, when in reality, we often have a lot to be grateful for. Whether it’s something big, like a promotion at work or just a call from an old friend you haven’t spoken to in a while, or the gift and taste of a fresh peach on a summer’s day.”
A fresh peach on any day sounds good to me. Would there ever be a more appropriate time to share the contents of a ‘Gratitude Jar’ than on a Thanksgiving Day afternoon after having a nice dinner together as a family? Before the jar is opened, it would also be good thing to express our gratitude to our Heavenly Father for life itself and the beauty of His earth, His earth created specifically for us, with all its colors and variations that please our eyes. Every family should have a gratitude jar and every member of the family should be encouraged to put experiences of gratitude in the jar. Being kind is a human option but feeling and expressing gratitude to the person giving kindness is a divine activity.