For many of us, 2020 is probably not on your Top Ten List of things you are grateful for right now. But what if it was? What if there was gold waiting to be discovered just below the surface of pandemic hardships, the contentious election year, the social unrest and the losses we have faced this year?
We are 24 days away from Thanksgiving Day and we want to suggest that practicing gratitude can finish this year off with significant benefits for you and your whole family. With that, we wanted to share a terrific idea and challenge that came from our friends Jon and Cathy Widmier. They identify where gratitude starts and how they are incorporating practicing gratitude as part of their Family Identity with their girls.
“We challenge everyone to start the next 24 days by writing down 3 things they are grateful for each day. This practice has been a blessing to our family and we know it will be for you as well. As we enter into this busy time of year, remembering God’s goodness will only help! We recently heard a message from Levi Lusko that supports this practice. As humans, we are really good at treating ourselves poorly. We are masters of self-sabotage, numbing ourselves through shopping, overeating, medication, social media, etc. You are what you think. You can change the way you feel by changing the way you think. The way we feel is responsible for so many of the problems we get ourselves into. Negative thoughts can’t lead to a positive life.
Proverbs 23:7 (NKJV) “For as he thinks in his heart, so is he.”
Have you ever heard of frequency illusion? You may have experienced it after you bought a new car. You started noticing how many other people drive the same car. Thinking negatively can act in the same way. What you look for, you will find. What if we taught ourselves to consciously look for good things – for signs of beauty; anything praiseworthy; where God is at work; someone’s generosity? A gratitude journal will help with this. Grab an old journal you have lying around or pick up a composition notebook on your next shopping trip. You can cover it with scrapbooking paper like we did. Make this gratitude challenge a family activity you can discuss at the dinner table.”
Philippians 4:8-9 (MSG) “Summing it all up, friends, I’d say you’ll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious – the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse. Put into practice what you learned from me, what you heard and saw and realized. Do that, and God, who makes everything work together, will work you into his most excellent harmonies.”
Did you know that science has proved this Biblical premise, that thinking about what is good in our lives and experiencing gratitude creates “his most excellent harmonies” for us and our families? In a Psychology Today article The Grateful Brain, Alex Korb, Ph.D. explains the neuroscience of thankfulness and why changing our thoughts and creating a daily habit of expressing gratitude changes our brains, our health, our behavior and sets in motion a cycle of virtue where we continually see the blessings in our lives and live accordingly. It’s like Thanksgiving every day without the overeating.
Gratitude is life-giving and life changing, and it is a virtue to pass on to your children which will help them overcome many competing vices that creep in such as selfishness, entitlement, materialism, envy, sibling rivalry and more. What parent doesn’t want that? So why not make the decision for yourself and your family to shift your thoughts toward thankfulness and turn it into a habit of the heart. We thank the Widmier Family for their wisdom and we hope your family will take up their challenge and get started today! You and your kids will really enjoy this fun and tangible way of making a gratitude journal a daily habit leading up to Thanksgiving and beyond.
Blessings to your family,
Shelly and Rich
Mealtime Manners & Behaviors
Saturday, 11/7/2020
2-3:30pm (PT), 3-4:30pm (MT), 4-5:30pm (CT), 5-6:30pm (ET)
We welcome families from all over the country… and world to join us online!
Hosted online via Zoom
Mealtime Manners & Behavior is a fun presentation for Parents and their Children (Elementary to Teens) as we head into the holiday season!