BE GRATEFUL (NKAE) BY STACY M. AMEWOYI

Stacy M. Amewoyi | Renowned Author & Writer

STACY AMEWOYI WRITES: 

In our Akan language, the elders always say, “nya nkae” meaning, be grateful. Charles Kojo Fosu (a.k.a. Daddy Lumba) in one of his song, he said “Asante didi nso Asante nkae” literally, Daddy Lumba is not only referring to Ashantes but every human being. Throughout our lives we meet many types of people and, no doubt, some are to remember.

 It is those people who have earned being in a special place in our lives, because they have given us help when we need it, they have always been there in difficult times or simply because they have grown up with us giving us their unconditional love. When we thank that person for what he has done, it is to imply that it was really worth his effort. Seeing how certain people live without gratitude causes me great pain, at such a level, that discovering an ungrateful person in my environment is enough reason to dismiss him her as a friend. You can’t go through life living that way! Using people as if they were disposable to achieve goals is not a virtue or a capacity. It is an impudence!  

At first, the ungrateful can achieve his purpose and take three steps forward, but he forgets a great detail, which he leaves in the heart of those who helped him.

If you cannot locate such people or you cannot remember their whereabouts, you can show love to the orphans, widows, and the homeless. Such people are the representatives of the people who helped you and God. The truth is that, in all the scenarios of life, we are close to an ungrateful person, whether in the family, at work, in business and even sharing joys and fun. I strongly believe that helping others deserves to be valued. Helping is not an obligation, it is a decision. Missing it is an incalculable shame. 

To assume this position it is important to be clear that we should not give waiting to receive. This is not about receiving something in return, but about thanking for something. It is the wise way to value what they do for one. The best part of all is that it costs nothing. That is precisely where I find it difficult to understand why we stop having gratitude. How much does it cost us to thank loyalty, respect, love or affection?

Any of these feelings are more than enough examples of how we can thank those who do something good for one. It is to recognize that person and express our appreciation when a gesture of love is received. It is sad that sometimes loyalty, respect and love become pain for the person who gives them and intends to destroy their path.

To you, who have received so much from life, be grateful! Do not let anything or anyone change your perception about the person who shook your hand at a time in your life. Do not send a garbage basket to whom you have sent a basket of flowers! That absence of gratitude reveals what we are made of. It shows us how ungrateful and cowardly a human being can be in the face of the empathy of the one who grants.

Being grateful is very far from envying who helped you, that person had the good faith to give you what he has and not what he has left over. I invite you to fight for yours with thanks and do not intend to go through life doing evil to others because, doing good, you can have double. Do not speak ill of who helps you just to cover your misdeeds and your evil. Sooner or later all comes out. Do not break chains of good faith that are so lacking. Otherwise, do not expect roses when what you have in return are thorns.

I have no doubt that we live in a hard, cruel and difficult world because of the lack of thanks. Because we are so indifferent to basic values, we suffer from such evil and contempt for life. What a pity that some of us are able to live grateful and others live collecting for their benefit and doing evil! Thanking is a matter of conscience. That consciousness that the human being has about himself and from which he can never escape.

The one that gives you harmony and well-being when you do things right. For example: “Jacob is an ungrateful person, I always accompanied him when he had a problem and now he doesn’t even answer my phone” “My parents taught me not to be ungrateful.” Take the case of a singer who, at the beginning of his career, used to receive all kinds of help from a friend: money, support to organize concerts, transfers to different stages, etc.

Ten years later, the musician in question is famous and millionaire and performs international tours with a troupe of assistants. When the friend who helped him in the beginning is left without work and asks for a job, the star replies that he can do nothing to help him. Taking into account his comfortable economic situation and that dozens of people work for him, it can be said that the singer is ungrateful, since he could give him a hand. At first glance, the ungrateful person is unfair without reason, since he refuses to return a series of favors or the good treatment he received from someone who was at his side when he needed it most.

Jeremiah 2: 5-6 “Thus says the LORD: What injustice did your parents find in me, so that they would turn away from me and walk after nothing and become futile? Nor did they say: Where is the LORD who brought us up from the land of Egypt, who led us through the desert, through a land of wastelands and ravines, through a dry and dark land, a land through which no one passed and where No man lived?” Of all sins, there is none more common than ingratitude. It is one that we commit without thinking. In the end, sin is selfishness. Ingratitude is rooted next to selfishness.

It is an ugly sin in the eyes of others but many times we are blinded to their presence in our lives. In the above Bible verse, we see how the children of Israel showed their ingratitude despite all that the Lord had done for them. The apostle Paul warned about the difficult and stressful moments that would come before the return of Christ: “You should also know this: that in the last days dangerous times will come.

For there will be men who love themselves, greedy, boasting, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful … ”(2 Timothy 3: 1-2, emphasis added). His list of destructive attitudes of the end times is quite long, but let’s focus on “ungrateful.” Why is ingratitude a symptom of a sick and self-destructive society? Why is it growing and how does it harm us, while gratitude benefits us?

Many stories have you heard from your parents, this is a story of a son for his mother. A boy stepped into the jewelry store and asked to be shown the best engagement ring he had. The jeweler presented one. The beautiful lonely stone shone like a tiny shining sun. The boy looked at the ring and with a smile approved it. He then asked the price and prepared to pay. Are you going to get married soon? – asked the jeweler.

Do not! – The boy replied – I don’t even have a girlfriend. The mute jeweler’s surprise entertained the buyer. It’s for my mom – said the boy. When I was going to be born she was alone; Someone advised him to kill me before I was born, that would avoid problems. But she refused and gave me the gift of life. And he had many problems. Many. She was father and mother to me, and she was friend and sister, and she was my teacher. It made me what I am.

Now that I can buy you this engagement ring. She never had one. I give it to him as a promise that if she did everything for me, now I will do everything for her. Maybe I’ll give another engagement ring later. But it will be the second. The jeweler said nothing. He only ordered his cashier to give the boy the discount that was made only to important customers.

Don’t forget how important it is to show your gratitude and love towards your parents. What they have done for you, is priceless, however you can do your best to return at least the best within your means, remember that if you are not a father, you will most likely be! Take advantage while you have them by your side, lest you soon have to repent and cannot return the time.

Source: Stacy M. Amewoyi