The Family Piggy Bank
We can only be said to be alive in those moments when our hearts are conscious of our treasures.
Thornton Wilder
So much these past weeks, people have been reminded what to be thankful for...even if living without power, you hear moms and dads saying they are thankful that their families are safe. Even if your guy in the election lost, you are thankful for the opportunity to vote. Even if you are on Cloud Nine, you remember to be thankful for all that happened and helped you get up to that cloud.
Next week, we will sit down, many of us saying grace or a prayer or just telling why we are thankful to those around us. But how do we show it besides saying it? Yes, paying it forward with donations of old clothes and time helping neighbors in need are all fantastic, but there are ways to remember to be thankful on a daily basis.
-- Keep a log of thanks. On your bedside table, in your purse, doesn't matter where you keep it, but every day, try to write down at least one thing you are thankful for (and yes, it could be just that you made it through the day).
-- Smile your thanks. Just smiling at folks, strangers in line at the pharmacy, the bus driver, the bank teller...a smile is a simple, silent way to spread a "thanks for all you do and for sharing my world" to others.
-- Make it a family ritual. At dinner or bedtime, have everyone say three things they were thankful for that happened that day. A specific thing, an event, having her favorite lunch served up in the cafeteria...all of it counts.
How do you remember to be thankful every day?
©iStockphoto.com/ Stacey Newman
Replies
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Yup....very true
Quoting 4kidz916:
Everytime I see my kids, I'm thankful.
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I am doing a Thankful Journal with each the kids through Thanksgiving. I hope its something we can keep on with for a while even if Thanksgiving is over... we are having so much fun with it!
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Quoting GwenMB:
We made a Thankful Tree - branches stuck in a quart canning jar (or anything that will hold them) with paper you can write what you are thankful for. You then stick the paper on the branches as leaves.
My boys have enjoyed telling me what they want me to write on the leaves (they are too young to write it themselves).
Once the tree is full, you could put the leaves on a scrapbook page. I've been writing who said it with the date on the back of each leaf.
I think that, for Christmas, I'll make "leaves" out of Christmas paper & put a Christmas ribbon around the jar. And then change to other seasonal paper and ribbon as we go through the year.
That's such a cute idea!
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I read a book that inspired me to start journaling things i am grateful for. I don't write in it every day but I do have several things listed. My goals it to fill up the whole book over time =)
We also pray and thank God for things that He has given us and ways He has blessed us.
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I look at the many blessings I've been given and at all the situations I've made it through that seemed impossible. -
I try to remember and keep in mind what if.. what if I didnt have what I have now? what if makes me think of what my life would be if that special person, thing or moment were not here. and then I smile because I feel lucky :)