The Thank You Boy

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This Whisper was originally published in November, 2017.
Three years later, we need the truth of its message more than ever.
I will be taking a week off to enjoy the Thanksgiving holidays.
Whispers of His Movement will return on Tuesday, November 30, as God allows.
Have a Blessed Thanksgiving.

 

I heard the exchange as I waited.
What do you say to the lady for giving you a piece of cheese? The mom asked.
Thank you, the little boy said in a sing-song kind of voice.
I think you can do better than that, the mom suggested.

THANK YOU, the little boy said with confidence and volume.
You are very welcome, the person behind the deli counter answered.
That was very good; it is important to say thank you, the mother reminded him.
The mother handed him his little toy as he sat in the shopping cart.

Thank you, Mommy, the little boy said.
You are welcome, the mother responded, quite pleased that her son seemed to get it.
You are such a good boy, the mother said encouragingly.
Thank you, Mommy, the little boy answered.

It was going to be a long shopping trip.

I passed the mother and son on a few aisles.
Would you hold this for, Mommy? The mother asked her son.
Thank you, Mommy, the little by said as he took the item from her hand.
THANK YOU, MOMMY! The little boy said loudly quite frustrated that he got no response.

Another woman was maneuvering down the crowded aisle.
The mom moved her shopping cart out of the way.
Thank you so much, the woman said as she passed.
Thank you, the little boy said totally out of context, which made the woman smile.

I saw the mother and son in the checkout line.
Each time an item was scanned, the little boy said thank you to the cashier.
Each time his mother handed him something to put up on the belt he said, thank you.
The mother seemed a bit tired of hearing the same phrase but she hung in there.

She answered his thank you with you’re welcome almost every time.
It was wearying.
It was tiring.
However, lessons were being learned and repetition was good.

When the groceries were bagged and they were ready to leave, the little boy said, thank you.
He said, thank you, to his cashier, and the cashier at the next register, and the next.
There goes the thank you boy, someone said when the mother and son were out of earshot.
A few people giggled.

I was too far back to participate in the conversation.
By the time I reached the register, the whole thing was forgotten.
People were talking about other things.
The lines needed to keep moving.

A customer was upset that something on sale did not scan at the sale price.
Another customer was frustrated because many of her coupons had expired.
Another customer was not pleased with the wait time.
A woman approached the register and said wisely, we need the thank you boy!

She said what I had been thinking.
That little ray of sunshine made everything brighter.
Perhaps his thank you could have softened the complainers a bit.
Perhaps his sweet spirit could have reminded them of the need for gratitude.

The little boy made me remember a neighbor from my street where I grew up.
She was a great cook.
She would send over homemade pasta fagioli, piping hot and ready to eat.
She would wrap freshly made Italian pizzelles, which always looked like snowflakes.

She would call my mother and tell her to send me over.
When I got there, she always had something homemade that she shared with us.
This same woman, who was so generous with her kitchen skills, complained.
She could always tell you who did not go to a funeral or who did not send a Christmas card.

The two sides of the same woman did not match.
Oh, she likes to complain, my mother would say, as if that explained it.
I liked the woman who sent over the homemade things much better.
Where is the thank you boy when we need him?

Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; His love endures forever. (1 Chronicles 16:34)

Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.
(1 Thessalonians 5:18)

Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise; give thanks to Him and praise His name. (Psalm 100:4)

Do everything without complaining or arguing, so that you may be blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and perverse generation, in which you shine as lights in the world. (Philippians 2:14,15)

It is a spirit of thankfulness that God wants each of us to exude.
That thankfulness should come from the heart.
What if the little boy had it right?
What if we said thank you for the littlest thing?

What if we were known as that thank you boy or that thank you girl?
Wouldn’t that be a wonderful thing?
You cannot fake thankfulness.
You cannot pretend to be grateful.

There is a joy in thankfulness that cannot be mimicked.
That joy is either there or it is not.
However, we can practice thankfulness until our heart catches up.
Our heart will catch up.

The thank you boy taught me a valuable lesson.
A complaining spirit sucks the life out of a room.
A thankful heart exudes contagious joy.
I hope I run into that little boy again; I really want to thank him.

 

 

2 responses to “The Thank You Boy”

1. I am not a naturally thankful person unfortunately, but God is working with me and I appreciate your encouragement to “practice mindfulness until our heart catches up”. Love that!

   Reply

   • Paula,
     So often our heart has to catch up.
     I still remember that little boy three years later.
     What a lesson he taught with his sweet spirit.
     Gina

     Reply