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4 Things You Can Do To Make Others Feel Appreciated

In honour of Mother’s Day, what better subject to tackle than that of appreciation, which every mother on the planet deserves to receive. 

There is nothing quite like feeling appreciated! And you will probably agree that feeling unappreciated is simply no fun at all. I have made it one of my missions in this life to make people around me feel appreciated.

Appreciation is simply acknowledging that someone has gone out of their way for you. The person has either taken something on in your place, or gone without to allow you more convenience and blessing. It is part of counting others as more significant than yourself (Philippians 2:3) by confessing that you did not deserve the kindness shown to you, but you are ever so thankful for it.

There are countless ways to show one’s appreciation to another.

4 things you can do to make others feel appreciated:

Acknowledge the Sacrifice

You will really stand out from the crowd simply by acknowledging the sacrifice that someone made for you in extending their kindness.

You may wish to say something like:

  • I know that you were tired because of your unwell toddler, yet you still chose to think of me when you…
  • I realize that you must have cooked all day when you could have been doing so many other things, thank you so much for the meal!
  • You could have driven home in ten short minutes, yet you offered to go out of your way to give me a ride.

Think about what your friend sacrificed to extend kindness and generosity to you, and recognize their blessing verbally.  

Acknowledge with a Tiny Word

This may seem silly, but using the word “so” is very effective in showing how grateful you are to someone.

“Thank you sovery much.”

“You were soloving to do that for me”

“I appreciate your time sogreatly”

(Or if you’re like me, use “sooooooo” :-))

This little word goes such a long way to emphasize that extra measure of gratitude.

Acknowledge at Meal Times

Something I teach my children when they sit down to a meal can sound like overkill, but take my word for it, every cook feels soooo appreciated 🙂 as a result.

There are three instances during meal times to show your appreciation:

  1. As you sit down at the table expectantly, “It smells delicious, I can hardly wait to try your tasty cooking!”
  2. Just after you taste the food, “Wow! That tastes even better than I expected. It’s absolutely delicious.”
  3. When you’ve finished your meal, “It’s been a long time since I ate anything as great as that.”

There are a thousand different ways to rephrase these kinds of statements, and it’s crucial to be sincere, of course.  Here are some ideas for during and after the meal when you actually aren’t enjoying your food:

Just after you taste the food, “I can tell that a lot of time and care was put into this food. Thank you for doing that for us!”

When you’ve finished your meal, “I feel so satisfied. Really appreciate your hard work.”

Teaching our children, and ourselves, to be thankful to God and to our host (or mom) for providing nourishment for our bodies is one of the most natural and recurring opportunities to show heartfelt appreciation. Click To Tweet

Acknowledge After A Kindness Shown

It’s a great idea after you have been the recipient of a kindness to express appreciation in written form. Nowadays, with the technology that most of us have easy access to, there are a myriad ways to do this:

  • Flick a text to thank the person acknowledging their sacrifice and your gratitude.
  • Send an email.
  • Record a short voice message on Whatsapp or other programme you use.
  • Send them a quick message through social media.
  • Write a physical note or card and mail it or pop it in their mailbox if you’re going by.

This takes me less than a minute, but goes a long, long way in adding that touch of responsiveness for the love shown.


In closing, I’d like to thank you soooooo much for taking the time to read this post. I know that you could have been tending to many other matters, yet you chose to spend these precious moments taking in the thoughts I’ve written. You must be itching to put into practice acknowledging your appreciation by writing me a note by email or in the comments, so I’ll be looking out for it :-).

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