What ever happened to "Thank You"?

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; 

for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.

The first "real" job I had was working as a carhop at a drive-in restaurant in my hometown of Bartlesville, OK.  I wasn't quite sixteen at the time.  The job was an interesting entry point into the world of work and allowed me to earn a little money which was pretty cool to a teenager.  My next job was a cook at an A&W drive-in, followed by a long stint at a Braum's Ice Cream store, interrupted by a short tenure in the electronics department selling CB radios, cheap stereos and vinyl albums at our local TG&Y store (that was an early version of Wal-Mart, look it up if you care kids.  We always said TG&Y stood for Turtles, Girdles and Yo-Yo's.)

None of these jobs paid especially well.  I think I made $2.50 per hour at Braum's (plus 10% off everything in the store) which wasn't bad considering that minimum wage in 1975 was $2.10 an hour.  All the rest were strictly minimum wage jobs with, sometimes, a few meager tips.  Not much pay for what seemed to a teenager like hard and sometimes tedious work. But still I think they taught me the value of work and a few other things that I still carry with me today.  One of those things is the importance of saying "Thank You"!  All of those early jobs were obviously in the service or retail industry and in every case my boss told me we were always to tell our customers thank you after they paid.  They drilled that in to me and would scold me if they happened to catch me letting a customer leave without a thank you!

For me it was almost second nature to say thank you anyway since mom and dad, especially mom, preached to me from a young age the importance of good manners.  

Joe and Nadine Harder
(1968)

Why, we even had lessons in elementary school about how to act with good manners.

I suppose I'm getting old and grumpy, but it seems like I rarely hear "thank you" anymore when I check-out at a store. In fact, I'm often the one to say thank you when a cashier hands me my receipt and merchandise.  Am I being overly sensitive or is it a sign that these retailers don't care an awful lot about my business?

I miss some of the old values of courtesy that were once pretty common in our society.  I don't know why it's fallen out of favor but whatever the reason I wish we were quicker to offer a heartfelt and courteous "thanks" or "thank you" to people that do something nice for us.  Not to mention an occasional "please".  It seems like the world was more polite when I was younger.

In this season of thanks take time to be a little more intentional to let people know you appreciate them by offering a kindly please or thank you.  You might make someone's day a little brighter and maybe they'll pass it on!