It’s all too easy to take God’s wonderful generosity for granted and fail to thank him as we should.  If you feel you’ve become slack about thanksgiving, you could make sure that your daily prayers include thanksgiving for the good things of life.  This thanksgiving may be at the end of each day and in the form of arrow prayers – quick darts of thanksgiving, expressed simply in your own words when you experience a particular gift from God e.g. the kindness of another human being, the scent of a flower or the song of a bird.

4. PRAY

The Prayer of General Thanksgiving in the Book of Common Prayer is very helpful because it reminds us of the big picture.  Below is a version which is slightly amended for readers who prefer and are used to more modern English.  The original version in the Book of Common Prayer can be accessed at the start of the Thanksgiving section in this document.   You may like to say the prayer now.

Almighty God, source of all good gifts, we your unworthy servants offer you most humble and hearty thanks for all your goodness and loving kindness to us and to all people.  We thank you for creating us, for our continued existence and all the blessings of this life; but above all, for your immeasurable love in the redemption of the world by our Lord Jesus Christ; for the means of grace, and for the hope of glory.  And we ask you to give us a proper awareness of all your gifts, that our hearts may be genuinely thankful, and that we praise you not only with our lips but in our lives; by dedicating ourselves to your service, and by walking with you in holiness and goodness to the end of our lives; through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom with you and the Holy Spirit, be all honour and glory, now and in all eternity.  Amen.

Adapted from the Prayer of Thanksgiving in the Book of Common Prayer