As children we are taught that we should be thankful.  Yet we cannot show the deepest gratitude because we lack full understanding.  

Our father and/or mother puts food out for us to eat.  We say “Thank you” because we are hungry and they have given us food..  We appreciate the food but not the effort it took to get the food.  We don’t know that first our parents had to work in order to earn the money to buy the food, that the job that they work at is grueling and has long hours but they must provide, that they had to make a list of all things needed for the meal and go to the store on their one day off or go out after a long day of work to get the food, and that they had to clean, cut, cook, and finish fixing the meal.  Or that when we finish they know they will have to start the grueling cycle again.  And yet they do it, day after day, because they love their children..  

It is the same for young Christians.  They are thankful for the gifts of salvation, mercy, gentleness, goodness, and love yet they don’t understand or even comprehend the effort and sacrifices made by God so he can and does offer us those gifts.  

How does our gratitude grow? It grows through true understanding. Now that I have had to put forth the effort to work, feed, clothe, shelter, and bless my own young, and not so young ones, I appreciate the effort of my parents in a new way.  Because I have lived it out. When I mature in Christ and I have to extend mercy, grace, gentleness, forgiveness, and love to others who are just as undeserving as I am, I will learn to appreciate Christ’s efforts and his sacrifice in a deeper way.   Our appreciation will deepen and our gratitude then can come from a place of understanding how much what we received really cost.  

I’m not saying that children are not truly thankful.  They are thankful, truly, yet their thankfulness will grow to deeper depths as they grow and experience and put forth effort themselves.  As we grow and mature in Christ it is the same, our gratitude will reach deeper depths than ever before. Beyond that it will keep growing and deepening as clarity and understanding through experience continues to come.  We will thank him because we realize the tremendous sacrifice made, and all the effort he has and is making on our behalf.  He is the one who does it all, we just receive it.  We should learn and grow to be truly, and deeply grateful.