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This is Paula Whidden, I’m an author and pastor and I’m coming to you from my home office while it’s raining outside. I’m all bundled up because it’s chilly and I hope you are bundled up too. 

 

In this episode of the Bible Momming podcast, we are talking about 2 little words that change our lives. 

 

No two words can make a bigger impact on people around you and on you yourself. Those words are easy to say but tough to feel sometimes. Yet, when we embrace them and use them as often as possible, they can change our own hearts even as we say them. They can soften the hearts of others and help give us access to more peace and joy than any other two words. 

 

These words need to be taught, we don’t say them naturally. They take practice to learn to wield well. We often use these words to reflect on being polite. We use them as a sign of courtesy, but they impact our own hearts in bigger ways than we realize. 

 

When my daughter Rachel was around 2 yrs. old, we went to a restaurant and I was helping her to make her own order. When the food arrived,  I leaned over and told her, “Say, thank you.” She then turned to our server and said, “Thank you.” It stunned our waitress and she asked how I did that. I was puzzled. Didn’t she see me tell her to say, “thank you?”

 

We were teaching her these words. We all have to be taught them and practice them over and over. They don’t come naturally.

 

In the Bible, they are used many different times by different people in different circumstances 

One time in particular stands out for me. 

 

Daniel’s story:

Nebuchadnezzar King of Babylon took over Judah. The Babylonians always conquer by taking people back to Babylon and having them integrate with the Babylonian community. From those people he wanted men specifically from the Royal family and other noble families to be brought to him.  They selected men who were strong, healthy and good-looking who were well versed in every branch of learning, who had the knowledge and good judgment. They were trained in the language and literature of Babylon for 3 years and then they would enter royal service.  Daniel was one of those men. He became a consultant to the king of Babylon. When the king needed wise counsel he called on Daniel.

 

Then, the King had a dream and he wanted someone to help him understand what that dream meant. He wouldn’t tell anyone the dream itself, he wanted them to know the dream and interpret it. This sounds crazy right?

 

When his first grouping of consultants told him that was impossible, he ordered them all to be killed. So someone comes to Daniel to cart him off to be killed and he has no idea why. When he learns about the problem, he and three other friends who also trusted God (we know them as Shadrach, Meshach and Abednago) start praying to God to have Him help them. Daniel asked the king for more time to interpret the dream and that night he had a vision that explained it all. 

 

Of course he’s very happy to have that happen, so he praises God and thanks Him for helping them. 

 

Daniel 2: 20-23

He said, “Praise the name of God forever and ever, for he has all wisdom and power. He controls the course of the world events, he removes kings and sets up other kings. He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to the scholars. he reveals deep and mysterious things and knows what lies hidden in darkness, though he is surrounded by light. 

I thank and praise you, God of my ancestors, for you have given me wisdom and strength. You have told me what we asked of you and revealed to us what the king demanded.”

 

This makes sense. We often go to God and thank him when things go well for us. 

 

We thank him when we get a new job. 

We thank him when the car starts after it sounded like it wouldn’t. 

We thank him when someone we love is kept safe from danger. 

 

That’s the polite thing to do. 

 

But what happens when things go wrong?

 

How do we talk with God when the car doesn’t start? When people we love are sick or have been harmed? When things aren’t going well? When a shooting happens at your local high school?

 

For me, I’m tempted to whine a lot. I complain, or I ask why me or why them. But life isn’t just full of the good times. It comes with hard times. 

 

No one escapes that. 

 

Even Jesus got into uncomfortable positions. Even Jesus had people die who were close to him. Imagine how he felt when he heard that his cousin John the Baptist had been beheaded. 

 

If he faced those challenges, we all will. It makes sense. So, then I wonder if being thankful is something God wants us to do because it’s the polite thing to do or if there’s more to it. 

We are going to talk more about this in a moment but I wanted to make sure you know that

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There are certainly polite verses in the Bible.

 

Psalm 7:17

I will thank the Lord because he is just; I will sing praise to the name of the Lord Most High.

 

Psalm 139:14

Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it.

 

But then, there are other times where it seems way beyond polite to be thankful in certain situations. 

 

1 Thessalonians 5:18

“Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus.”

 

Hmm. Be thankful in ALL CIRCUMSTANCES?

 

So, even if the car doesn’t start, 

or my health isn’t what I want it to be, 

or my friend or I  experience great pain? or tragedy…

I should try to figure out how to be thankful in THOSE situations?

 

YES. (and we need to help our children to imagine this as an option)

 

Science has learned that our actions often precede our attitudes. In other words, we may not feel a certain way, but by acting as if we do, we then begin to feel that way. 

 

This makes me think of my friend Sarah. She was terrified to speak and a bunch of social anxiety, but she had learned that if you act confident, you become confident. So, she joined Toastmasters to learn how to speak better. That’s where I met her. 

 

She would shake before she had to speak. I remember a specific time when she was speaking when she was talking about being a confident speaker and her hands were so wet it felt as if she had just washed the dishes when I shook her hand right before she went up to speak. 

Sarah was persistent and kept trying. She eventually went to the International Toastmasters' convention and became the 10th best speaker in the world. She’s had articles written about her in Forbes magazine. And it all started by realizing that our actions precede our attitudes. 

 

So if you want to be thankful, you start acting thankful and as a result, you become thankful.  Funny how science often figures out things that God knew all along. 

 

This is an amazing thing to know as a parent. If we teach our children how to be thankful, it’s a part of helping them to truly become thankful people. 

 

Sometimes we know these things without having to have research prove them.

 

I think Paul knew this when he wrote this to the Philippians.

Philippians 4:6

“Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.”

 

I think Daniel knew it too. 

 

You see, Daniel had a tough life. He was plucked from his homeland, taken across the known world at that time. Forced to serve a king who neither knew God or honored him. And God helped him through it all. So much so that, for a while, King Nebuchadnezzar actually trusted God. But then, he went back to his self-centered ways and he lost his mind. 

 

A new King took over, King Belshazzar. and once again, Daniel became his advisor. He gave the king guidance from God. He became the third highest ruler and then that king was killed.

 

The next king, Darius, the Mede, also chose Daniel as an administrator. Other advisors were jealous of the attention Daniel got, so they set him up. They tricked Darius into creating an order that for the next 30 days any person who prays to anyone, divine or human—except the king would be thrown into the lion’s den. 

 

We know this story right. But what I find interesting is Daniel’s response to the signing of this law. 

 

Daniel 6:10

But when Daniel learned that the law had been signed, he went home and knelt down as usual in his upstairs room, with its windows open toward Jerusalem. He prayed three times a day, just as he had always done, giving thanks to his God.

 

A law has been passed that he would be put in the lion’s den if he prayed, and he was so committed to following God that not only did he pray, he did it with the windows open three times that day and he wasn’t begging God to save his life. He wasn’t crying for the people who also prayed regularly. He was thanking God, just as he had always done.

 

Think about that for a second. 

 

He’s a prisoner, in a foreign land (guilded cage for sure, but still a prisoner). He’s being handed off from king to king and each one dies abruptly or gets killed. Now, his third king, is ready to let him get shredded by hungry lions and he’s thanking God.

 

That’s hugely convicting to me. 

 

Yes, it says that when they found him he was asking for God’s help. But, Daniel isn’t confident that God will protect him. He doesn’t make any statement that God’s got this. Actually, when he’s led to the den it’s Darius who wishes Daniel would be saved. Darius says,

“May your God, who you serve so faithfully, rescue you.“

 

Daniel is silent. 

 

He’s not some super hero with the power to close the mouths of lions with a single breath. He’s just a man. He’s a faithful man. He’s committed to serving God. But he’s just a man.

 

I’m sure many such men died regularly as captives. I’m sure Daniel didn’t think of himself as impervious to pain or suffering. 

 

We all know what happened. The stone is put over the lion’s den and the king goes home. Daniel spends the night there and we have no idea what happened except that the next morning the king shows up and opens the den and shouts,

 

“Daniel, servant of the living God! Was your God, whom you serve so faithfully, able to rescue you from the lions?”

 

Daniel answered, “Long live the king! My God sent his angel to shut the lions’ mouths so that they would not hurt me, for I have been found innocent in his sight. And I have not wronged you, Your Majesty.”

 

Daniel went on to serve one more King, King Cyrus of Persia. I suspect he prayed 3 times a day with an open window, giving thanks to God each time. 

 

In many ways, Daniel’s life was way more turbulent than our lives have been or will be. His life stands as an example of how we should be living. We should be living with confidence to share that we love and trust God. We should be living with thankful attitudes in our hearts and on our lips as we pray. If he could do it, there should be nothing stopping us. 

 

Our kids need to know that. And in order for that to truly happen, we need to live this truth in front of them.

 

Colossians 2:6-7

“And now, just as you accepted Christ Jesus as your Lord, you must continue to follow him. Let your roots grow down into him, and let your lives be built on him then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught, and you will overflow with thankfulness.”

 

It’s tempting for us to complain when life gets tough when our leaders don’t do what we want them to do, when our friends or family or even we suffer. The challenge is to not sink ourselves into that pit of despair. The challenge is to trust God enough to seek out something to thank Him for in the midst of the frustration. The challenge is to begin thanking Him even if we don’t feel it at the moment because He is worth thanking. 

 

As we thank Him, we will receive the peace Paul mentioned in Philippians. We won’t necessarily understand it, but we will receive it. And He will guard our hearts as we face the various trials this life has to offer. 

 

I live in Santa Clarita just one mile from Saugus High school and the shooting that happened there. My children knew other kids who stood next to the shooter and ran for their lives. They also know people who were friends with the shooter. Both groups of people are suffering and so many families have been impacted by this event. And still, there are things we can be thankful for. For the many people of Santa Clarita who have offered free services to kids and their families for everything from therapy to yoga to t-shirts to video games. We can be thankful for the emergency service providers who did everything right. We can be thankful for neighbors who hid running kids. We can be thankful for kids who watched out for other kids and protected them. We can be thankful for families who communicate with and support one another. We can be thankful for the people who lit candles in memory of the shooter all along the street where he lived. We can be thankful for the faculty and their tireless efforts to help the kids even as they struggle with their own fears and frustrations. 

 

As we prepare for Thanksgiving, these words are everywhere. Our ancestors knew the value of them too. We need to remember to say, “Thank you.” Even if you don’t have a fancy meal or a huge crowd of the family to spend time with, we can still do this. We can still be thankful because God is present in our lives and everything we have, whether it’s little or a lot, He provided it for us. 

 

 

It makes me think of a song I grew up with.

 

Give thanks with a grateful heart

Give thanks to the Holy One

Give thank because He’s given Jesus Christ, His Son.

 

And now, let weak say I am strong

Let the poor say I am rich

Because of what the Lord has done for us

 

Give thanks.

 

1 Thessalonians 5:18

“Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus.”

 

I want to let you know how thankful I am for you. I pray for you regularly and value you. If this is helpful for you, please share it with a friend. Take a screenshot and post about it on your favorite social media format or text a friend, but there are so many voices out there and if this is helpful for you, it may be helpful for your friends too. So, let them know about it. And make sure to subscribe to the podcast because I love podcasts, but the only ones I really listen to and enjoy are the ones I subscribe to. It’s always free and ready whenever you want to listen. 

 

I know you have plenty of things to do and plenty of choices on podcasts, so again, thank you for listening. 

 

Remember, love is patient and love is kind and that is never more real than in our families. God bless you and have a beautiful day.