I am so glad that Outreach Canada has taken a whole quarter of the year to focus on gratitude in 2019. We have so much to be grateful for, but sometimes we get stuck in a routine of being thankful for the same things over and over. I would like to encourage you today to share your gratitude with these five people. You may not be able to identify all five of these people in your life but it will be worth your time to think about who fills these roles for you.

So here it is, my list of five important people who deserve our gratitude:

1. The Person who Discipled You

We will start with an easy one. When was the last time you thanked the person who discipled you or mentored you? There may be a long list of people who fit in this spot, but think of one who had a significant impact in the direction of your life and let them know how much you appreciate them.

2. Your First Employer

The second person may be a stretch for some people, but have you ever thanked the person who gave you your first meaningful job? Some of those first work opportunities were great for building our character and in some cases that first employer may have had to extend a little extra grace and patience with us.

3. The Person who Listens to You

The third person on the list shouldn’t be a surprise; I am thinking of the person who listens to you. Most of us have a close person who we go to when we need to talk to someone. It may be a pastor, a friend, a co-worker, or a family member. If you are like me, when I contact my buddy to talk, it's usually about me talking and him listening. I am so thankful for these friends in my life. I need to tell them how much I appreciate them.

4. The Person who Challenges You

The fourth person on the list may be someone close, or it is possible that this is someone you have never met personally. I am thinking about the person who challenges or inspires you to be better person. This may be an author, blogger, pastor, friend, or any other super-hero in your life. There have been a couple of occasions in my life when I have received notes of gratitude or encouragement from people who have said that I have inspired them to make a decision or to live differently. Those notes have been a great encouragement to me.

5. The Hardest One

The fifth person on the list today is probably going to be the most challenging for you, as it is for me. I am thinking about saying thank you to the person who may have caused hurt to you in the past, but it was something that worked out for good. Maybe it was a boss who laid you off, resulting in you finding a better job. Maybe it was a family member who had to exercise some tough love to help you learn a lesson. Perhaps it was a friend who argued with you vehemently about something, and it ended up that they were right. Sometimes we have to make a very uncomfortable decision for the good of someone else. When we have the maturity to recognize the people who have done that for us, we can give them a wonderful gift by saying thank you.

Who Else?

So, there you have it. Five people that you might want to thank while you still can. As I was writing this blog, I thought of a bunch more people who deserve my heart felt gratitude. How about you? Who would you add to this list of people you might want to thank?

Want to read more about Gratitude? Check out more articles about Gratitude on our Outreach Canada Blog. 

When Craig Kraft was very young, he wanted to be a policeman or a cowboy. Later in life, he dreamed of being a professional fisherman or the manager of a remote wilderness lodge. Now, he’s the Executive Director of Outreach Canada! Craig loves to watch sports, work in the yard & spend time in the woods. Craig loves that OC is a team of passionate people who work together toward the goal of discipling people into the kingdom of God and he loves the opportunities he has to work with so many different people across Canada & the world.