Timothy and Tammy Aho plant churches in inner-city communities near Birmingham, England. One way they serve is with a network of churches comprised mainly of asylum seekers from the country of Eritrea in Africa. They recently organized the young people they are discipling at one Eritrean church to lead an English language worship service, focused on the theme of thanksgiving. Here is an excerpt from Tim’s message at the service that may help you express your gratitude during the holiday season.

We live in a day, a season, when many people think they are owed something or deserve what they have. Or, there are those times when one doesn’t feel grateful and cannot find anything for which to be grateful. It’s an ungrateful season.

A little over four years ago we were stateside with Tammy’s dad in his last weeks of life as cancer took its toll on his body. While he was in hospice, my mum passed away unexpectedly with a heart attack. Ten days later, my father-in-law died. We were numb for the four weeks during that time, and another four weeks after we returned to England.

Early in those weeks a friend wrote to encourage us, and suggested we keep our eyes open for the “little blessings” along the way. I am so glad we listened to her, because we found multiple reasons to be grateful to God in a difficult set of circumstances.

Here’s my suggestions for being thankful in an ungrateful season:

• Be humble. Don’t use the language of gratitude as a means of bragging or manipulating God (see Luke 18.9-14).
• Be specific. Name the act, feeling, circumstance, or person for which you are grateful.
• Be personal. Go and express your offering of thanks in person or hand-write a card or letter.
• Be bold. Even if there is some tension or distance in a relationship, expressing gratitude to that person may lead to reconciliation.
• Be grateful together. Corporately expressing thankfulness together is powerful, encouraging, and transformative.