Ingratitude Displays My Dependence

It's said that St. Paul needed a thorn in his flesh to keep him humble. A start in that direction for me is a family gathering as I learn anew the poverty of my witness for Christ. Ideally that should reinforce my utter dependence on Him.

My sister had us go around the table mentioning what we were thankful for. This felt much like the team-building exercises at work and so I had an instinctive reaction against it, having read too many Dilbert cartoons. I would I'd have said something like "God, my wife, and trees". Instead I expressed thanks for my coming vacation time. A natural hope instead of a supernatural one.

Jesus said if we did not acknowledge Him before men, he wouldn't acknowledge us before the Father. And yet it feels to me like brown-nosing, somehow, to mention God among family. It's why I favor set prayers before meals rather than freelanced ones. It's slightly reminiscent of the movie "Three Amigos" when the three main characters take turns saying what they were going to spend their new-found wealth on. The first two said natural things, like new cars, and the last said he would give it to an orphanage or something and the other two immediately said, "oh, yeah, we'd get those things after we giving to the orphanage of course..".