Why Saying Thank You Changes Relationships
Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you with all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another with psalms, hymns, spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God. In fact, verse 17 says, Whatever you do in word…
Notice what happens between people
Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you with all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another with psalms, hymns, spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God. In fact, verse 17 says, Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through him to God the Father.
basically every part of who we are as a Christian and how we influence others involves the need to express thanksgiving, to be thankful.
Listen beneath the surface
The problem is that by deflecting the praise of a genuine compliment, you don't acknowledge the person who is nice enough to say something. Simply saying thank you fully acknowledges the person who made the compliment and allows you to enjoy the moment as well.
Someone tells a lady, your dress looks great, instead of, oh, this old thing, I've had it for years, try saying, thank you, I'm glad you like it.
Choose a better response
The article states, and it's well said, you may not know what to say, but all you really need to do is be present and thank them for trusting you. If, for instance, somebody loses a parent, instead of saying, I know you have a lot of great memories to hold on to, maybe say something like, Thank you for sharing that with me.
Instead of being an economist and telling them the current state of the job market, maybe you could just say, Thank you for sharing that with me, I will definitely be praying for you.
Practice it in real life
Maybe somebody says, Chris, your podcasts, they're probably pretty good for people who don't have a lot of self-discipline, but for those of us who have control of our lives, I would consider that a pretty big waste of time. By the way, I'm not going to tell you if someone actually said that to me or not, but it would be very easy for me to become defensive, not only of myself and what I'm doing here, but all of you, my friends who are listening and are disciplined people and are just looking to get better.
But probably the best thing I could say is, hey, thank you for listening and at least checking it out.
Take the idea with you.
- 01Where does the central idea of “Why Saying Thank You Changes Relationships” show up most clearly in my life right now?
- 02What does this episode call me to believe, stop, start, or handle differently?
- 03What is one specific action I can take today instead of merely agreeing with the idea?
Listen to the original episode
This article was adapted from Episode 66 · Say Thank You. Continue with the podcast for the original teaching in Kris’s voice.
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