This Sunday, I hung out with a bunch of elementary aged kids and told them a story about a guy named Paul. I told them about how Paul worked and spread the work and words of Jesus. Then I got to the point of the whole story and told them about gratitude and how gracious Paul was. He said thank you to people who helped him. He said thank you in a big way. It was a pretty cool story.

The entire time Iw as up there, telling these kids to be gracious, I felt like a huge hypocrite. I don’t say thank you enough. I don’t say thank you to my husband for supporting me and doing a billion things for me always. I don’t say thank you to my mom for loving me and raising me and giving me recipes. I don’t say thank you to my friends for making me laugh and being there for me and loaning me their shoes. I don’t say thank you to my pastor for inspiring me every week. I don’t say thank you enough.

I am gonna change that. I am going to be more thankful. I am going to start right now. Here are some people who have done some nice things for me, or made me smile, or just been a good friend, or inspired me, whether they know it or not, that I would like to thank:

Kyle Grice, Emma Murrell, Emily Monts de Oca, Alecia Stanton, Ginny Kersey, Susan Bullock, Timm Collins, Kristen Thompson, Jamie Nance, Tyler Grice, Jay and Nick, Guin, Mike Monts de Oca, the makers of Fable II, the guys in the red car that let me out in front of him on my way out of Publix, and Rainn Wilson.

If your name is not on that list, it does not mean I am not thankful for you, it just means that my jumbled mind has forgotten all the nice things you have done for me before this weekend. Sorry. I will make a better effort in the future to be more thankful and to be better to you.

So I would like to challenge you to be more thankful. You don’t have to make a list on your blog like I did, maybe make a phone call to a friend. Maybe send a letter to somebody. Maybe be really grand and take somebody out to lunch. You will be glad you did, and so will they. And probably more likely to help you move, or paint your house, or give you a place to stay when you are in town again. Think about it.