This weekend, we were in Birmingham, Alabama for my daughter's swim meet. Now for those of you not familiar with swim meet procedures, the phrase "hurry up and wait" pretty much sums it up nicely. You get up early in the morning (5:30 on a Saturday and Sunday). Arrive at the pool by 7:00 for warm-ups, and then sit and wait. About every hour, your child swims one event which lasts for about 1-2 minutes, and then you sit and wait again. This goes on until 1-2 in the afternoon, and then you get up Sunday and do it all over again. In a weekend, it is nothing to be at the pool for 10-12 hours, to watch your child swim 10-15 minutes (now don't get me wrong - those 10-15 minutes can be edge of your seat kind of stuff, but the hours in between can get long).
I share this with you simply as perspective. Needless to say, there is not a lot to do in these "down times". As we sat this past Saturday morning at the swim meet, we were shocked when one of Alyssa's friends showed up behind us. As we talked they told us they had driven down Friday night, and come to the meet just to surprise Alyssa, encourage her, and spend the day with her. WOW! As a father, I can not begin to express how touched I was. My daughter has a friend who was willing to give up most of her weekend, and a family who was willing to give up their time, money, and travel 3 hours (each way), to simply come watch and support a friend.
The love I saw and experienced from them was priceless, and it is something I will never forget. I watched my daughter's face light up and saw the joy she had the rest of the day simply spending some time with her friend. It was amazing to me that someone cared for my daughter in this way, and all I could do was say "thank you". Two simple words that cost me nothing, but hopefully conveyed how touched and blessed I was by this family.
As I sat and thought about this more and more, I realized how blessed I am. Yet, often I do not take the time to simply say "thank you". Words that seem insignificant, but convey so much. They convey a heart of thankfulness. They convey care for what has been done. They convey acknowledgement of others. They convey a reality that can be easily ignore. It is so easy to miss the reality of blessings (small and large) all around us, and when we do not stop to simply acknowledge them, we rob ourselves of the opportunity to see the goodness and blessings all around us, and in the process, change our viewpoint and perspective.
I Thessalonians 5:18 reminds us of the importance of stopping to simply give thanks. What would our day look like if we did this? If we thanked someone for asking how we were doing? If we thanked those around us for simply being our friend? If we thanked those around us for the small things they did for us? If we were thankful for the opportunities we had each day - working, spending time with family, breathing? If we stopped, looked around, and just said "thank you" for the blessing we had, imagine how our outlook would change?
This past month, I have seen many on Facebook doing this very thing, and it is amazing and uplifting to me just to read what others are thankful for. I encourage you this week, whether on Facebook, in a card, or in person, take time to just say thank you each day to those around you. You might be surprised at how much it bring you and those around you, and how little it truly does cost.
- Quote taken from BrainyQuote.com
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