Gratitude

Tonight during Family Home Evening (FHE) we talked about gratitude. Sometimes it is easy to get discouraged instead of focusing on all that Heavenly Father has blessed us with. In college I had a big piece of poster sized paper on my wall. I invested in a pack of Crayola markers and every day I would try to record a couple of things for which I was grateful. My list included everything from left-handed desks to sharing my umbrella with a friend to getting a phone call and many other simple things. Just reading through that list helped me feel happy whenever I was having a bad day. Some days were bad enough that I really had to make myself search for something to be grateful for but I was always able to come up with at least one or two things (I tried not to repeat the same things--something new each day.) In recent years I have, on occasion, kept a gratitude journal. That is great way to help me recognize the Lord’s hand in my life too.

Tonight we talked about how being grateful can change our attitude and giving thanks in all things. We made a gratitude list to post on the refrigerator. Here are the things the  boys listed—some are silly, some serious:

Seth:

• The Gospel
• My Family
• The computer
• Books
• TV
• School
• Football
• Basketball
• Haircuts

Joel:

• Mom
• Dad
• George Lucas
• Star Wars
• Clothing
• Food
• Water
• Brothers

Nate:

• Jesus
• Playing tennis
• TV
• friends
• Mom and Dad
• Books

Danny: (with help from his brothers)

• Diapers
• Wipes
• Brothers
• Bubbles
• Cookies (Gih-coos)
• Blankie

While I have many things to be thankful for I want to share just one from my list. What am I most grateful for today? Joel coming to me and saying “Mom, you are my greatest blessing.”