Ten lepers came to Jesus and asked him to heal them. Jesus sent them to the priests, and they were all healed along the way. Only one of the ten healed people returned to thank Jesus, and that person was not even a Jew. He was a Samaritan who was considered to be a foreigner in Israel’s sight.

As God’s precious children, we are rightly eager to turn to our heavenly Father with our petitions, but sometimes we can forget to thank God in the busyness and distractions of this world. Here are ten people in the Bible who remembered to thank God, encouraging us to follow their excellent example:

1. Miriam

Miriam, the older sister of Moses and Aaron, gave thanks to God while playing her tambourine and dancing with joy with the other women whom God saved from the Egyptians after they crossed over the Red Sea:

Then Miriam the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took a tambourine in her hand, and all the women went out after her with tambourines and dancing. And Miriam sang to them:

  “Sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously;

  the horse and his rider he has thrown into the sea.” Exod. 15:20–21

2. Hannah

Hannah gave a long prayer of thanks to God in 1 Samuel 2 because God granted her petition for a son. Once Samuel was weaned, Hannah and her husband, Elkanah, brought him to Eli the priest to be dedicated to the Lord:

And Hannah prayed and said,

  “My heart exults in the Lord;

  my horn is exalted in the Lord.

  My mouth derides my enemies,

  because I rejoice in your salvation… (1 Sam. 2:1–10)

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