Thursday, April 07, 2005

thank you

at a continuing education event i attended back in january the presenter, a man named bob sitze, talked about the meaning of saying two simple words:

thank you.

he said lots of things, but this one particular thing really hit home: saying thank you is very important and we should do it as often as we can. part of his presentation had to deal with getting a person's attention. there are so many stimuli trying to grab our attention in today's world. technology, which should have made our lives easier is actually putting our brains on overload. once upon a time a person had to hear something repeated at least 3 times for it to sink in; now it takes 27 times before a person really hears something. so here it goes:

thank you
thank you
thank you
thank you
thank you
thank you
thank you
thank you
thank you
thank you
thank you
thank you
thank you
thank you
thank you
thank you
thank you
thank you
thank you
thank you
thank you
thank you
thank you
thank you
thank you
thank you
thank you
thank you

saying thank you requires a willingness to be vulnerable. we say thank you because someone has done something for us that we were not able to do for ourselves or because someone has done something for us we aren't doing for ourselves.

i have felt an incredible outpouring of support after my last post about my son. people have cried with me, shared their own stories of parenting, offered advise as professionals, and offered to pray for my family. 27 times to say thank you just isn't enough to express my gratitude for all that.

at another site i asked for prayers because i was feeling small and weak and a friend suggested that maybe that was exactly where God wanted me to be. it's true that i have been trying to be strong and not let this situation bother me. the moment that i allowed myself to feel small and weak was the moment that i have felt the most strength.

there is strength in weakness because weakness means that we must rely upon something greater than ourselves. it is the first commandment, the first rule: there is only one God and we are to fear, love, and trust in him above all other things... even our own selves. it is contrary to what society teaches us, that we should be strong, make our own way, put ourselves first...

but faith teaches us, teaches me, that loving God first means that i am not alone and there is strength, great strength in community.

so thank you for the strength, and the support, and the love, and the advice, and the prayers. thank you for this blessing you have bestowed upon me.

thank you.

2 comments:

CatNFiddle said...

Okay, NOW I'm crying with you. I swear, you are doing everything right to help Ethan catch up. Never forget how many people are rooting for you and your family.

All my love also to Scott and Rachel!

B'Shalom

Sue said...

you're welcome

you're welcome

you're welcome


....you get the idea. you rock cats. hang in there, eh? (oh my, how canadian is THAT???)

"and vivian followed."

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