Fostering an Attitude of Gratitude in Us and our Grandchildren … and an Accompanying Craft
I was just about to post it on Facebook. A smart-aleck comment that I just knew would strike a chord of kindred spirits with everyone. Well … everyone who lives in cold climates and has to experience the weather from the outside, as opposed to sipping hot cocoa on the inside.
After waking up last week to a blanket of snow, freezing weather and hungry, thirsty chickens that needed buckets of water carried to their coop in the field, this grandma was already fed up with winter even before it started.
Determined to share my agony with everyone, the Facebook post started materializing in my mind as my frozen fingers struggled to open the chickens’ complicated new raccoon-proof door locks. I would write: “Snow is part of the curse! Look it up yourself — Irritations 11:20.” At that moment, I was convinced that winter was a curse and summer was a blessing.
Then I logged into my computer and the post I was about to type disintegrated into oblivion. There, staring me in the face, were two new posts — one from our daughter and the other from a friend, both extolling the beauty of God’s creation and His awesome presence in the cold air and fresh covering of snow.
Our daughter posted this picture and wrote: “Lovely snow we had Saturday. It fell softly and seemed to bring all the land into a reverent hush. Be still and know that He is God. (Psalm 46:10)”
And our friend wrote: “The cold, crisp air reminds me of the Lord’s salvation. You can see clearly. You can hear clearly. It is a sweet smell. It is refreshing. It makes you alert. It jolts you out of your slumber. Yes, today reminds me of God’s goodness!!”
Wow! An attitude of gratitude sees the beauty in everything and is thankful in everything. Over the years, I’ve learned to recognize purpose in trials, praises in pain, blessings in hardships, beauty in devastation … but because we’re human, it’s still so easy to let little irritations change our focus if we aren’t continuously on guard.
Upon reading those God-honoring Facebook posts, my mind was once again transformed: I became so very thankful for the beauty and stillness of a lovely winter morning. How incredible that our awesome God could place this soft blanket upon us overnight … and create instant new scenery for us to enjoy and explore!
This morning, we received another, even larger, blanket of snow after the last one had melted. But today, I ventured out with the same water buckets but a new attitude, thanking God for the beauty and for the opportunity to get exercise in His creation by feeding and watering the chickens in the early hours of dawn.
But you know what? Those ungrateful chickens weren’t at all thankful for the snow! They refused to go out of their coop! They just stood there and stared blankly at the cold snow that had invaded their new day. One brave-hearted hen stepped gingerly onto the snow and then quickly pulled back out of it. The rest of the flock looked at me as if I somehow could — and should — change their situation.
Isn’t that just like us? We’re unthankful when things don’t go exactly our way, and instead of seeing the beauty, we see the beast.
As grandparents, we have a unique vantage point. We can see the beauty through our children and grandchildren. Hubby and I took our visiting 2-year-old granddaughter to the snowy chicken coop this afternoon for her first experience gathering eggs. What a joy to see the excitement in her eyes as she was surrounded by chickens, hungry for her handfuls of scratch grains, and the wonder and delight in her eyes of discovering large, shiny brown eggs in the nest boxes and helping gather them. Just to see and experience those moments was worth all of the water-lugging and feed hauling through all types of challenging weather conditions.
“Therefore, since we receive a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us show gratitude, by which we may offer to God an acceptable service with reverence and awe.” — Hebrews 12:28
Webster’s 1828 Dictionary describes Thankfulness as “Gratitude; a lively sense of good received.”
Resolved – to foster an attitude of gratitude, first in myself, and then in the grandchildren! We all have things to be thankful for — because of the goodness and mercy of God — even amid severe hardships.
Friends of our family have a son, a missionary pilot, who just lost a leg in a devastating accident in New Guinea. He’s in intense pain, battling infections, and has a long road of recovery and totally different lifestyle ahead. Yet he and his family are the perfect examples of gratefulness and thankfulness. The parents have their son alive. The wife has her husband alive. The children have their dad alive. This godly man has the blessing of being able to continue raising and discipling his children and enjoying his loving wife and family. They are all so very grateful and express it continually. Only Jesus Christ living through us can turn the ungrateful beast within us to a beautiful heart of worship, thanksgiving and gratitude.
The way to foster that attitude of gratitude is by continually realizing our state — that we deserve nothing, yet God has given us everything. Through Jesus Christ, we have eternal life in paradise with our Savior. This life is just a blip in eternity, but it’s our opportunity to have an impact on our children and grandchildren for eternity. Pray with them, sing praises with them, love them, educate them, disciple them, build their character, point them to Christ.
As Americans celebrate Thanksgiving Day tomorrow, remembering how God has blessed this nation, let’s remember the even greater things for which we have to be thankful, no matter what part of the world we live in. Here’s a fun craft, keepsake and living tribute that will be fun for the grandchildren and help nurture a spirit of thankfulness. The finished product is pictured at the top of this blog. We did this last year and plan to do it again tomorrow.
Here’s how it works: Print off the pages, cut out the leaves and punch a hole in the top of each leaf. You can use a color printer or use b&w and have the children color them with a light highlighter so the text is still readable. Grab a branch from a tree outside and put it in a weighted vase. After the meal, have everyone write something they are thankful for — and why — on the back of one or more leaves. Then ask each person to read aloud the Scripture verse on the front of their leaf and what they wrote on the back before hanging it on the Thanksgiving Tree. Thank you, Ann Voskamp, for this lovely idea on how to keep a thankful spirit and nurture it in our children and grandchildren. (This printable craft is available in Spanish, too.)
Have a blessed day of Thanksgiving tomorrow, whether you are celebrating our history in America, or whether you live elsewhere in the world and simply want to visibly live out a heart of thankfulness to God — an Attitude of Gratitude.
— Barb Heki, for Grandparents of Homeschoolers™
Lyrics to “Give Thanks,” by Don Moen:
Give thanks with a grateful heart
Give thanks to the Holy One
Give thanks because He’s given Jesus Christ, His Son
And now let the weak say, “I am strong”
Let the poor say, “I am rich
Because of what the Lord has done for us”
Give thanks with a grateful heart
Give thanks to the Holy One
Give thanks because He’s given Jesus Christ, His Son
