As I attempted to do last Lent, I spent this Lenten season trying to remember to say a prayer of thanks before every meal.

It had a two-fold purpose. One was to give me a reason to say a regular prayer, even if only a short one. I have fallen out of the habit of praying regularly, and I miss it. The second purpose was to help me be more mindful of what I was putting into my mouth figuring if I paid more attention to the whole eating process, I'd eat less.

The practice served the first purpose very well. Not quite as well on the second. No surprise there.

However, as is often true of these sorts of spiritual practices, another unexpected result has emerged, discovered after I ended up talking about it twice in the same evening.

The question posed to me was: What is the significance of giving thanks for food, or anything, except to make you yourself thankful for what you already have?

I thought it was a good question, particularly when one realizes that God (to whom the thanks is often offered) doesn't need our thanks. In other words, God is not dependent upon human thanks for validation. When we do a favor for someone and they say thanks, we feel good about doing them a favor. Our action is validated. We extended a small part of ourselves to another, they accept it, acknowledge it, and so the act comes full circle.

When we do a favor for someone and they never say thanks, or never acknowledge the act, we're left hanging out in the wind. We extended a small part of ourselves to another, and it disappeared. Suddenly there's this sense of loss and of feeling diminished or rejected.

This is not - cannot be - true of God. God is a constant. There is nothing anyone can do or say that adds to God or takes away from God. God is not any less God when we don't acknowledge what we believe has been given to us; God is not any greater a God when we do acknowledge the gifts in our lives.

So then why give thanks? And why does the subject of giving thanks come up as often as it does in Scripture, because there are many examples where people are chastised for not giving appropriate thanks to God. If God doesn't need it, then why lay the smackdown on those who seem to be ungrateful?

And the very short answer I've been thinking about is that giving thanks regularly does 2 things (at least):

1) it counters all the negative thoughts we conjure up in our heads by refuting them with reality. I may think I'm in a bad place (so the negative thoughts tell me) where I am unloved, unwanted, rejected, neglected, unhappy, etc., but when I step back and look firmly at the reality of what is truly in my life, I soon realize I am standing in a place of abundance. "Count your blessings" may seem to be a trite phrase, but it's no less important than counting our pennies to assure ourselves that we have enough money to live. If I'm careful to monitor what's in my bank account, then I should be at least as careful about monitoring what is in my spiritual account because I need that to live even more than I need money. Giving thanks is one way of taking inventory.

2) Giving thanks also keeps me humble in the sense that it compels me to stop assuming I have all this control; and therefore, all this responsibility; and therefore, all this opportunity for failure. When I acknowledge that there are good things in my life for which I can take little to no credit for having, it reminds me that I am merely a small part of a much bigger picture. It reconnects me to the One, and that provides me with a sense of wholeness - of completeness - in spite of all the broken-ness that surrounds me.

As far as being scripturally chastised for not giving thanks, it is becoming clearer to me that God's chastisement is at its harshest when we are denying ourselves God's greatest gifts. Understanding the abundance present in our lives by giving thanks is not to keep a wrathful God at bay. It is for our benefit, our growth, and our joy.

Thank God.