Showing Appreciation

I absolutely love a good turkey dinner.

And I appreciate the enormous amount of skill and work that goes into that meal. So when I’m in the midst of eating it, there’s no guesswork required as to how much I’m truly enjoying it.

The smile on my face, my ongoing comments as to how awesome a particular item tastes, my semi-regular trips to the kitchen to get another helping, my not talking due to my mouth being crammed with food, all demonstrate how much I completely appreciate the meal. There’s no need for me to be intentional about showing my gratitude in any way. My appreciation overflows into my behavior.

When I look at the word ‘appreciation’, I think about how much I cherish someone or something and how I’d go about demonstrating that gratitude.

Some ways we can show appreciation to someone are by acknowledgement, recognition, valuing, treasuring, admiring, or respecting that person in a way that we know they’d understand. Sometimes that appreciation is so obvious that there’s no real need to be intentional about showing it. It naturally overflows.

But other times however, our appreciation for someone is not as obvious.

Then, it’s important to take the time and energy to make sure that person knows how much they are truly appreciated for who they are and what they do. It might mean a kind word, an encouraging note, a gift of some kind, a smile, an act of service, or any number of other things that would tell someone they are valued and appreciated.

Showing our appreciation is vital.

We all know how good it feels when someone we care about takes time to be intentional in demonstrating to us how much he or she appreciates us. The same is true for the folks who use our services. Oftentimes they are the people showing their appreciation to us as a staff. And other times, we could afford to be conscious of moments when we could provide that appreciation and encouragement to them. As I said earlier, we all know how good it feels to be appreciated.

So as we continue our month of October, with our missional themes of gratitude, appreciation and celebration, let’s be mindful of how much these things add to our work as we continue to strive to be ‘The Hand of God in the Heart of the City’.

Dion