A Grateful Family Heart
Ever wish your family showed a little more gratitude?
You can nurture thankfulness in your family! Why wait until Thanksgiving?
Here are few ideas to get your family in the mood for gratitude:
- Grab a notebook or a journal and label it the Family Gratitude Journal. Leave it on the kitchen table and encourage everyone to join in the thankfulness.
To get started, choose a family time (a family meal, a special dessert) to kick off the journal. Be sure everyone knows the journal is for all of you – it’s a picture of your gratefulness as a family. Here are some ideas to get you going:
Use the alphabet as a starter. Put at the top of a page “I’m thankful for… “ and write an A on one line. Skip a few lines and write a B and so on.
Label another page “Pictures of gratitude.” Tape in a picture of something you’re grateful for and encourage the rest of the family to follow suit.
Start another page with the phrase “Gratitude from my childhood.” Encourage family members to add memories they’re thankful for.
- Here’s another way to accelerate your family’s gratitude. Talk about two or three people or families that you’re grateful for. Choose a couple and write a thank you note from all of you.
These could be relatives, neighbors, another family that has helped yours or have just been good friends, a youth leader or teacher, even a Sunday School teacher from way back. Talk about what you’re thankful for as a family and why – you’ll be surprised what surfaces.
Get pen and paper, buy a card, get on the computer, and write a thank you note. Put it in the mail. There’s nothing like holding good wishes from the heart in your hand.
- Another way to highlight thankfulness? Just say “Thank you” more often – it can be contagious.
Thank each other – even for things you have to do, things you always do. (My sons know they have to take out the trash, but I still thank them for doing it!) Maybe you’ve been taking those things (and those people) for granted, so that’s even more reason to say thanks. Saying “Thank you” is just another way of signaling grace — confessing that we’re not responsible for all we possess and enjoy and gesturing toward One who is greater.
Why do we give thanks?
It’s part of living in Christ.
Colossians 2:6,7 tells us ”So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.”
So, live in Him and let Him live through you as a family. Signal grace to those around you.
Show your grateful family heart.
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