photo courtesy: unsplash
With Thanksgiving just around the corner, many of us are making conscious efforts to be more thankful. This is such a great thing because unfortunately, there is an epidemic of ingratitude in America.
Even though we have SO much for which to be thankful, we many times fail to see our blessings and can only think about the hard things in life.
One of the major problems with this epidemic among adults is that our kids are learning from us.
Here are 3 things our kids learn when we fail to practice thanksgiving.
3 Things Our Kids Learn When We Aren’t Thankful:
1. They learn they don’t need to be thankful.
Wouldn’t it be nice if simply telling our kids to be thankful was enough for them to learn gratitude?
Unfortunately, we all know that’s not how it works.
The old saying, “More is caught than taught,” is true. Our kids are much more likely to learn thankfulness if they see it lived out in our lives and vice versa. If we aren’t thankful, they will likely learn to be ungrateful too.
2. They learn to focus on the negative.
Life is hard enough as it is. Our children don’t need to go into adulthood expecting the worst to happen to them.
Instead, they need to enter adulthood knowing that even though hard things sometimes happen, they can still have joy in the midst of pain because of their Savior and His presence in their lives.
We can’t control everything that happens to us (and neither can our kids), but we (and they) can control how we react to our circumstances…and whether we seek to find joy in the midst of it or not.
3. They learn Jesus isn’t enough.
Ouch…this one hurts, doesn’t it? But it’s true.
When our children fail to see thankfulness in our lives, they learn that stuff and circumstances determine joy, rather than Jesus. If we can only be thankful when everything is going well in our lives, then we’re teaching our kids that those are the things that make someone happy.
On the other hand, when our kids see us praising Jesus through our storms, they learn thankfulness in all things. They learn gratitude is possible, even in the hard. And they learn Jesus is enough for joy.
What other things do you think we teach our kids when we fail to be thankful?
*photo courtesy: unsplash
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Lindsey Bell is the author of Unbeaten and of Searching for Sanity. She’s also a stay-at-home mother of two, minister’s wife, avid reader, and chocolate lover. You can find Lindsey online at her website: www.lindseymbell.com.
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