My name is James Howard and Im a Christian, an author, and the father of three wonderful grown children.

Sometime ago I felt my children might not be getting enough of Gods Word in their mental and emotional diets, so I began emailing them nuggets of Scripture that I would find from my own daily Bible reading. Later I began adding a oneline comment at the bottom to help explain the verse or put it into context. These are now being tweeted daily as Todays Bible Verse. Earlier this Thanksgiving week I thought I would do a search of the Bible to see how many times the work thank in all its forms showed up (including thanks, thankful, thanksgiving, etc). What I found was surprising, not only in how many times thank was mentioned, but also where it was mentioned and where it wasnt, and in what concentrations. My findings are written below. My search was made in the King James Version, and while I realize there are some who dont like the thees and thous, I use it because its public domain. Id rather not have a Bible publisher come to me demanding royalty payments because I used their Bible to advance my writing career. This has never happened to me but it remains a possibility. Further, since Im a fan of the works of William Shakespeare, it makes sense that I would enjoy the Bible translated during the same time period. I found (thanks to my Guan YC KJV Bible Android app and BibleGateway.com) 134 verses in the Bible that contained the word thank. Surprisingly, the word thank in any form was not found in Genesis, Exodus, or Numbers. This is not to suggest the Patriarchs of the faith werent thankful. On the contrary, many times they would go out of their way to build an altar and burn a sacrifice to express their thanks to God, its just the word thank doesnt appear. Leviticus is the first place the word thank appears and it is in reference to the sacrifices of thanksgiving performed by the priests for the people. It appears 3 times in Chapter 7 and once in Chapter 22 where it tells that our thanksgiving sacrifices should be offered by our own will. Next it appears twice in 2 Samuel during the time of King David (not surprisingly since there are a whopping 29 references of thanks found in the Book of Psalms). Beside the 2 references in 2 Samuel the text is completely void of the word thanks for the rest of the history of Ancient Israel. There are none in Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1 Samuel, 1 Kings, or 2 Kings, until the carrying away to Babylon. Again, Im not suggesting the people werent thankful. Sacrifices were offered and gratitude was expressed in other ways. Im just pointing out how the word thank wasnt used. One might not even notice the lack of the word, until one gets to the next book where an explosion of its use reveals the contrast. 1 and 2 Chronicles use the word thank no less that 13 times, which is even more incredible when you think that the first 9 Chapters are taken up with genealogies and another 5 chapters contain lists of all the priests and workers of the Temple, etc. Now, the 1 and 2 Chronicles described the same exact historical period as the Books of Samuel and of the Kings, so why the great references to thanks in Chronicles? The answer lies in when each of the books were written. The Books of Samuel were written during and after the time of the Prophet Samuel. The Books of the Kings were written during the time of the Kings, and incidentally during the time of the Falling Away of the People and Kings of Israel from God and His ways and statutes. (Sound familiar to our time?) The Books of the Chronicles, on the other hand were written AFTER the

carrying away to Babylon and the return to Israel. It seems an intractable part of human nature to remain ungrateful, until everything is taken away and we realize what weve lost. (But this is not a necessary requirement, as we shall see.) Ezra, also written after the Exile period, contains a verse of thanks, while Nehemiah, which follows Ezra, contains no less that 8 verses with the word thank, considerable when you realize that book has only 13 chapters! After Psalms there are 5 references with thanks in the books of the Prophets, including 2 from Daniel (written while in Babylon) and one from Jonah (prayed from the belly of the whale). But must we have calamity to learn gratitude? The answer is no, for our next great example of thankfulness comes from the Lord Jesus Himself. The 4 Gospels, which record the life and teachings of Jesus Christ, contain no less than 18 verses of thanks, most spoken by Lord Jesus Himself. He didnt have to experience calamity to learn gratitude, for He displayed it during His entire adult life. What an example for us to follow a life of thankfulness! Paul followed His example. Between the Book of Acts, where he is quoted giving thanks, and his Epistles to the Churches, Paul uses the word thank in its various forms an astounding 48 times! What a life spent in thankfulness, and this despite persecution, beatings, imprisonment and isolation. One might be tempted to think the hard times caused his gratitude, but Pauls thankfulness started when he discovered the reality of who Jesus Christ was, and what He had done to save Paul (and each of us). Paul was thankful at the beginning, and that thankfulness carried him through the persecution, etc. Believers in Christ today have no more or less of Christs Holy Spirit than Paul had, the only difference might be in our choice whether or not to live fully in the Spirit. Thinking good thoughts, trusting God in all things, praising Him for who he is, and stirring up an attitude of gushing gratitude is part of the life lived fully in the Spirit, along with devoted study of Gods Word. I encourage you to take time this holiday to meditate deeply on all the blessings you have in God, and express it aloud to family and friends. Cultivate a life of thankfulness, and youll be happier for it! God bless you! James Howard