Parents ask their children numerous questions during their lifetimes. Many inquiries are not a request for unknown information but a reminder to do the right thing. Out of all the questions parents typically ask, one question seems to rise to the top: “What do you say?”
We ask it when we present food at the table. We say it when someone gives them a gift at a birthday party. We even plead with them when a family member offers them something we know that they aren’t going to like. There’s even an inflection of the voice we typically use. It’s a desperate prompting to produce grateful children.
We want them to make it a habit to say a simple yet essential phrase: “Thank you.”
It’s one thing to make them say it. It’s another if they offer it up themselves.
The same is true for us. God has showered us with numerous blessings that our nudging our souls. You can almost hear these gifts questioning us, “What do you say?”
God deserves our thanks. We should need no further urging, but Scripture provides us with numerous ones. As we look around our lives, our natural response should be gratitude.
Look around your life.
The device you are reading this article on right now.
The opportunities you have.
The people surrounding you.
Creation calling for your attention.
The obstacles you overcame.
The situations in which He maintained.
Look around. Behold. Wonder.
“What do you say?”
Take some time to do that today and get specific.
Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name.
Hebrews 13:15
Travis Agnew serves as the Lead Pastor of Rocky Creek Church in Greenville, SC. His most recent book is Just (About) Married.
