Learning & Teaching Gratitude

So I've been trying something new this year to help me and my family appreciate and practice the holiday of Thanksgiving. Normally, Thanksgiving is a holiday that sneaks up on me, and almost seems like a nuisance. I usually am too eager for Christmas to be bothered with giving thanks. Bring on the stuff, please! But God has been opening me up more and more to RECEIVE his gifts, and to acknowledge that He is the Giver by simply thanking Him. I have found that this has been helping me trust God more and to live more contentedly.

So to practice this, I combined several ideas from Pinterest, including templates of the leaves that I printed and then cut out, and Ann Voskamp's blog, A Holy Experience, to create our leaf mural.

Each day, usually after dinner, we think about something in particular that we want to thank Jesus for. We write it down on one side of the leaf. Then, I read a verse from Scripture regarding thanksgiving that Ann Voskamp compiled, and we write the reference on the opposite side. Then, we tape the leaf to the wall. It's quite simple, which is good for this crafty-challenged mamma, but it does help us to pause, reflect on our day, and express thanks to Jesus for his gifts to us.

Usually Jed has needed a lot of prompting for this activity and will name whatever is right in front of him or something we've suggested to him. So I've doubted if he really understands the meaning of the activity at all. Still, I know that simply getting into the motions of such a tradition can be valuable for him in the future as he'll come to understand the meaning.

But today, out of the blue, in the middle of the day, he points up at the leaves and says, "Rubber ducky on a leaf." It takes me a few tries to understand what he is saying and then I realize that he's initiating his participation in the activity today. He's thankful for his rubber ducky and wants to write it on a leaf. So I grab a leaf, write it down, share the verse for the day, and we tape it on the wall. Jed points to it a few times, "Rubber ducky? Rubber ducky?"

"Yes, Jed," I say, "your rubber ducky is up there." And he walks away happy, as do I. It was exciting to see that he had internalized the significance enough to think of something on his own, without prompting. I suppose there is more he understands than he lets on!