HOW CAN YOU SAY THANKS?

REGARDING HENRY
By Henrylito D. Tacio

HOW CAN YOU SAY THANKS?

IN everything, the Holy Bible urges, gives thanks.
The following story, which reportedly happened in
Africa, proves it.

Once upon a time, a king had a close friend whom he
grew up with. This friend, however, had a habit of
looking at every situation that ever occurred in his
life – either positive or negative – and remarking,
“This is good!”

One day, the two friends were out on a hunting
expedition. The friend would load and prepare the guns
for the king. But at one point in time, the friend
had apparently done something wrong in preparing one
of the guns. After taking the gun from his friend,
the king fired it and his thumb was blown off.

Examining the situation, the friend made his usual
remark, “This is good!” To which the king replied,
“No, this is not good!” When they came back at the
kingdom, the king proceeded to send his friend to
jail.

About a year later, the king was hunting in an area
that was forbidden. Cannibals captured him and took
them to their village. They tied his hands, stacked
some wood, set up a stake and bound him to the stake.
As they came near to set fire to the wood, they
noticed that the king has a missing thumb. Being
superstitious, they never ate anyone that was less
than whole. So they untied the king and sent him on
his way home.

While resting at his kingdom, he was reminded of the
event that had taken his thumb and felt remorse for
his treatment of his friend. He then went
immediately to the jail and spoke with his friend.
“You were right,” the king told him, “it was good that
my thumb was blown off.”

And the king proceeded to tell the friend all that had
just happened. “And so I am very sorry for sending you
to jail for so long. It was bad for me to do this,”
the king said.

Again, the friend replied with his usual remark: “No.
This is good!” Surprised by his answer, the king
inquired, “What do you mean, ‘This is good?’ How
could it be good that I sent my friend to jail for a
year?”

“If I had not been in jail, I would have been with
you. And the cannibals would have eaten me!”

“God gave you a gift of 86,400 seconds today,” reminds
author William A. Ward. “Have you used one to say,
“Thank you?’” To which Meister Eckhart adds, “If the
only prayer you said in your whole life was ‘Thank
you,’ that would suffice.”

“I live in the space of thankfulness - and I have been
rewarded a million times over for it. I started out
giving thanks for small things, and the more thankful
I became, the more my bounty increased.” Do you know
who said those words? If you care to know, the
statement comes from the mouth of the famous Oprah
Winfrey.

How can this well-known American television
personality ever give thanks? To think of, she was
born out of wedlock and was given to her grandmother’s
care shortly after birth. At nine, she was sent to
live with her mother. She was repeatedly raped by a
teenage cousin, and later sexually abused by other
family members. “I was, and still am, severely
damaged by the experience. I unconsciously blamed
myself for those men’s acts,” she told the world in
1985.

Ms Winfrey thanked her friend and mentor Maya Angelou
for turning her life around. “You’re saying thank
you,” Maya told her, “because your faith is so strong
that you don’t doubt that whatever the problem, you’ll
get through it. You’re saying thank you because you
know that even in the eye of the storm, God has put a
rainbow in the clouds. You’re saying thank you because
you know there’s no problem created that can compare
to the Creator of all things. Say thank you!”

Indeed, how easy is it to say, “Thank you.” But
oftentimes, we fail to do so. The Bible is replete
with stories of not giving thanks to the person who
has done something great for them. One such story was
recorded in Luke 17:11-19. As Jesus went to a
village, ten men who had leprosy (the Greek word was
used for various diseases affecting the skin – not
necessarily leprosy) met him. They stood at a
distance and called out n a loud voice, “Jesus,
Master, have pity on us!”

When Jesus saw them, he said, “Go, and show yourselves
to the priests.” And as they went, they were
cleansed. One of them, when he saw he was healed,
came back, praising God in loud voice. He threw
himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked the Healer.

Jesus wondered: “Were not all ten cleansed? Where are
the other nine? Was no one found to return and give
praise to God except this person?”

“Gratitude,” Cicero states, “is not only the greatest
of virtues, but the parent of all others.” But “we
often take for granted the very things that most
deserve our gratitude,” Cynthia Ozick reiterates. A
Chinese proverb urges that when you eat bamboo
sprouts, always remember the man who planted them.

Silent gratitude isn’t much use to a person who
deserves it. How to be grateful, Albert Schweitzer
instructs, “To educate yourself for the feeling of
gratitude means to take nothing for granted, but to
always seek out and value the kind that will stand
behind the action. Nothing that is done for you is a
matter of course. Everything originates in a will for
the good, which is directed at you. Train yourself
never to put off the word or action for the expression
of gratitude.”

In some instances, saying thank you may not be enough.
In fact, appreciate a person of who he is and for
what he has done. Appreciation, Voltaire pinpoints,
“is a wonderful thing. It makes what is excellent in
others belong to us as well.”

Jim Stovall suggests, “You need to be aware of what
others are doing, applaud their efforts, acknowledge
their successes, and encourage them in their pursuits.
When we all help one another, everybody wins.”
Business tycoon Sal Walton has the same idea in mind
when he said, “Appreciate everything your associates
do for the business. Nothing else can quite substitute
for a few well-chosen, well-timed, sincere words of
praise. They’re absolutely free and worth a fortune.”

Perhaps, more than appreciation is encouragement. As
someone once said, “A word of encouragement during a
failure is worth more than an hour of praise after
success.” And remember the words of William Arthur?
“Flatter me,” he said, “and I may not believe you.
Criticize me, and I may not like you. Ignore me, and I
may not forgive you. Encourage me, and I may not
forget you.”

“The spirited horse, which will try to win the race of
its own accord,” Ovid said, “will run even faster if
encouraged.”

Say thanks. Appreciate someone. Give encouragement.
Buddha declares, “Let us rise up and be thankful, for
if we didn’t learn a lot today, at least we learned a
little, and if we didn’t learn a little, at least we
didn’t get sick, and if we got sick, at least we
didn’t die; so, let us all be thankful.”