Starting with thanks is proper, good, right, and salutary. We say it in the communion liturgy: It is good, right, and salutary that we should at all times and in all places give thanks go you Holy God..." Good: beneficial, blessing, and edifying. Right: proper, appropriate, and decent. Salutary: beneficial, up-building, and confirming.
One of the condemning failures of sinful man is a failure to Give thanks to God. "Although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him," says Paul in Romans 1:21. Praise is proper. It puts things in perspective. It honors God. It puts problems in perspective. We properly start with praise and thanks to God for his grace to us and his work in others. It's the right thing to do.
