Attitude of Gratitude

Tonight we had our traditional Family Home Evening on Gratitude.

I had played with the thought of going straight from Halloween decorations to Christmas decorations, but the kidlets couldn’t believe I would skip putting up our Gratitude Tree.

So this weekend the tree went up and the pilgrims and indians made themselves cozy in the branches and behold…our Gratitude Tree.

I was going to do the usual lesson where we go around the room and discuss things we were grateful for, but instead Big Daddy had a wonderful lesson for us. And since he has made himself at home on my little blog I am going to let him share his lesson with you:

“Have you ever noticed how powerful and symbolic the timing is at the end of the calendar year?  It’s pretty cool how every year we have the opportunity to go through this process….

“We have the chance in November to start focusing on those things for which we are grateful.  We acknowledge more sincerely the Source of everything that is good, and we spend less time thinking about ourselves.  Our gratitude, humility and meekness can all improve in November as we count our blessings and soften our hearts.  This process prepares us for December.  At Christmastime, we focus on the birth, life and example of our Savior.  As we remind ourselves that all of our blessings come from an Eternal and Loving God, we can’t help but consider that the gift of His Son is the ultimate reason to be thankful for anything at all.  Finally, after preparing our hearts in November, and focusing on Christ and His life in December, we have the opportunity in January to make some commitments or resolutions about how we can improve or how we can take steps to be more like Christ.”

After he was done we did make a little list of some of the things we are thankful for:

Teachers

Home

Atonement

Neighbors

Kidlets

Family

United States of America

Love

I am so glad I didn’t just skip over really celebrating Thanksgiving and spending time talking with the kidlets about all that we have been blessed with and focusing on our “Attitude of Gratitude”.