Having a Heart Attitude of Thankfulness

Yesterday I wrote about being thankful. I said, "Being thankful goes to the heart of who we are. It can be far too easy to be a person who just takes advantage of the kindness of others and this is something people who serve in churches need to be on guard for." We cause great pain to others when we take advantage of them and when we misjudge them.

Of course, none of us want to be people who take advantage of others or who misjudge them, but how can we be on guard for this and recognize if this is what we are doing? Consider the following . . .

• Do you give your attention to volunteers who have questions, or do you brush them off? Remember, they could be doing other things with their time, but they are serving! Honor and appreciate their gift of their time by giving them your time. If you are too busy to answer the questions of a volunteer, then you are too busy. Your time is not more valuable or important than their time. If someone has a lot of questions, make time to answer them or team them up with someone who can answer their questions.
• Do you take the information, resources, etc a volunteer gives you and then pass them off as your ideas or resources? Do you tend to take credit for the generosity of others? Do you let people think it is your idea or your resource you are giving to someone else?
• Do you "label" a volunteer and then refuse to evaluate if you have misjudged them?
• Do you take for granted volunteers and what they do? Or worse, if you no longer need them do you just push them aside?

Obviously you do not want to answer "yes" to any of these questions, but if you can, then clearly, you need to make some changes. 

Being thankful is more than just saying the words - although you need to say the words often and sincerely. Being thankful is a heart attitude and shows itself in the way you treat your volunteers day in and day out. Be sure your attitude and actions show someone who truly is thankful!