Thank God...but really, did you?

Happy Thing of the Day: surprise bowling dates (this one is MY happy thing, because the other night that's exactly what I got!)

On any given day, people respond in sighs of relief "thank God".  But did you really?  The other day I heard a group of people complaining and making fun of someone because they took Sundays off for church.  They talked about how religion was pointless and how God didn't exist.  And then after a slight crisis was averted, the main complainer said "thank God".  My thought was..."so you'll give Him credit but deny His existence?" 

On the other side of this are the Christ following crew.  We all say this tiny phrase probably more than once a day, but did you really stop to thank Him?  It's such a small thing when you think about it, we say thank you to a stranger opening a door or to a friend for a gift, but we don't very often thank God for what He does for us.  We really don't give Him the credit He deserves.  We are right in saying "thank God" for all of these tiny or enormous things He does for us, but we don't actually STOP and THANK Him. 

We ask God all the time for so many things- new jobs, new relationships, healing, love, or even small petty things.  But when these things happen, we forget, we actually asked for them, and most of the time, we don't say thank you to the one who granted our requests.  It's like we're three years old again and our mom has to ask "what do you say?" but we don't have that little reminder anymore. No one gives us that little nudge to be polite anymore, so shouldn't we all know better by now? 

Maybe we should all think when we say that, and take a few seconds, close our eyes, and just say "thanks!" because He really does deserve all the credit!