Modeling Gratitude

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude
 in your hearts to God.

~ Colossians 3:16

I wish I had spent a little more time on teaching my son to thank others. I taught him all the more obvious manners, but neglected to teach him this most important one. Maybe I neglected it because I wasn't very thankful myself, being in the habit of the "blame game." I think some of his discontent today is partly my fault, BUT it's never too late to learn new habits when one's alive -- look at me, I'm learning new stuff all the time. Perhaps if I model gratitude, he'll "catch it" too (like a virus!). *smile*

Since I am a former homeschool mom and pre-school Sunday School teacher, I went to my library to see what books I could find that could be read to children on the subject of gratitude. Most of them were concerned with the holiday of Thanksgiving, but there were a few, listed here, good for everyday thanksgiving. . .

1. "I'm Thankful Each Day!" By P.K. Hallinan. 1981.
2. Veggie Tales Madame Blueberry, 1998.
3. Feeling Thankful. By Shelley Rotner & Sheila Kelly, Ed. D. 2000. 
4. Thoughts and Feelings: Thanks. By Ruth Shannon Odor. 2000. 
5. Just So Thankful. By Mercer Mayer. 2006.
6. Learn About Values: Thankfulness. By Cynthia Roberts. 2008. 
7. Gracias Thanks. By Pat Mora. 2009.  
8. Give Thanks Each Day. By Steve Metzger. 2011. 
9. Bear Says Thanks. By Karma Wilson. 2012.
10. The Thankful Book. By Todd Parr. 2012
11. Thank God for Rocks By Esther Bender. 2002

Today I'm grateful for:

1. I thank God for my hubbin's promotion at work to warehouse lead and raise!
2. I thank God for answering my prayers to help me find new information on my 3rd great-grandfather, Elder Martin White. And I'm thankful for the new friends and cousins I've met through the internet who have helped me with my research.
3. I'm delighted and grateful that two publications thought enough of my work to publish it recently -- Just Cards Magazine by Scotts Publications (you can purchase previous copies on eBay: I have a list of issues that I've been published in down on the bottom of my craft blog) and Missouri Genealogical Society.
4. I'm thankful I have two legs to walk with.
5. I'm thankful our car didn't need as many costly repairs as we thought it might!