Cultivating an Attitude of Gratitude in your Child
By: Sarah Hogue, Director of Children’s Ministry and Member Formation
We live in a time where everyone wants “the next best thing” and “I want it now!” The concept of delayed gratification is not as popular as it once was. The result is that our children (and, if we are honest, all of us) often overlook the many things they have and fixate on the things they don’t. We are raising our kids in a culture that is rich in things and poor in gratitude.
As Thanksgiving approaches, I wonder how, in this new culture, can we cultivate an attitude of gratitude in our children? Here are five simple ideas you can try right now:
At the dinner table each night, have everyone say three things that they are grateful for during their day. No matter how bad a day is, you can still find things for which to be thankful. You can also write these in a journal, so when you have a bad day, you can look back and see the mountain of things to be grateful for!
Share your gratitude with others! Write thank you notes. A hand-written note is rare these days. Teach them to take the time to say thank you to people who touch your life. Text or call someone. Even though the handwritten note is the Emily Post-acceptable way to say thank you, and it does hold meaning, we are all super busy. It is more important to say thank you than the means in which you do it. Send someone a quick text (or call them) to let them know that something they did was meaningful to you. Show your children that even though we are busy, gratitude should not be forgotten.
Take a Gratitude Walk with your children. As you walk, use your five senses to notice things for which you are grateful.
Do a “November Thankfulness Challenge” where each day your whole family individually writes down on a slip of paper something for which they are thankful, placing them in a jar, and then on Thanksgiving, taking them out and reading them together. Another thought is to write these “thankful thoughts” on a pumpkin, going around and around it. It will be a nice Thanksgiving centerpiece full of November blessings!
Give. Let your children see a spirit of generosity flow from you. The things we have to be thankful for can be an opportunity for us to freely give and bless others. Make sure that you aren’t just thankful to be blessed, but that out of that, you are a blessing to others.
Above all, children learn what they see, and if you model an attitude of gratitude, they will, too.