Why send a thank you note, you ask? Isn’t it old fashioned? Isn’t it enough just to say “thank you?” Who does that anyway?
When I was in college I was invited to a fraternity dance with a friend where we traveled from Malibu to the East Bay prior to our dinner dance in San Francisco the following night.
We slept on the floor of one of the young men’s house, named Vince (not my date). After we got home from our fun weekend of touring Alcatraz and dancing the night away at the Westin, I wrote a thank you note to Vince’s mother and father for allowing a dozen or more of us to crash on their floor.
On the last day of school I went on my first date with Vince. A day later we graduated from Pepperdine and he brought his mom up to my apartment to meet me for the second time. She said, “I remember you, you were one of the two girls who wrote me a thank you note after staying in our home.”
Wow.
Some of you know the rest of the story. Vince is now my husband, and well, his mom is my mother in law. Vince was not my date on that trip and at that time, I never in a million years would have thought that I would be married to him or have his parents as my in-laws.
Just goes to show how a little gesture can make a big difference.
My kids always write thank you notes, and so do I. We have a Gratitude Journal where we write down all of the gifts we receive.
I was not “trained” to write thank you notes as a child. In fact, I have no idea where I learned any of my social graces, but I am sure to pass on this habit of a small gesture of kindness and gratitude to my kids. We must be intentional about practicing gratitude, and we will in turn be blessed.
