The New Attitude - Gratitude!

Tis’ the season…for ungratefulness, entitlement, selfishness and receiving.  Oh wait, wait, wait…let me try that again…tis’ the season for overconsumption, credit card debt and pedestrians run over in the Walmart crosswalk.  Hmm that’s not quite right either…tis’ the season for stress, high blood pressure and panic attacks.

I know, I know…I sound so pessimistic.  Don’t get me wrong, I love Christmas…BUT (you know whatever comes after the “but” is not going to be good) I have heard a theme coming from many people this year.  The theme is around gratitude or the lack thereof.

In the days leading up to Christmas my boys asked me, “Did you bring us a present today?”  In the days following Christmas my boys asked me, “Did you bring us a present today?”  The more they got the more than wanted.  I heard a mother say that her daughter counted her gifts and said, “6 gifts, you can do better than that.”  I heard a father say that his son was ungrateful because the gift wasn’t exactly what he had asked for.  I heard a coworker say that her children feel entitled.

Part of me says, “kids will be kids”, the other part of me says, “it is my mission to teach my children gratitude.”  So often we hear about focusing on the “reason for the season” and taking the emphasis off of presents.  It is so much easier said than done.  I think most of us are guilty of material gluttony at some point or another.

The older my boys get, the more I would like to open their eyes to the lives of people less fortunate than ourselves.  How eye opening would it be to go to a soup kitchen on Christmas eve or Christmas morning and see people with no family, no presents, no Christmas smorgasbord; some with simply the clothes on their back and their next meal in a bowl in front of them.

If any of you have heartwarming stories of thankfulness and gratitude expressed by your kids, please share.  If any of you have “heartcooling” (yeah I just made it up) stories of ungratefulness or entitlement, please share.  If any of you have ideas on how to nurture gratitude please share.

Counting My Blessings,

Meg  

This Little Light of Mine

(I just ran across this journal entry from October of last year and I thought I'd share.)

This Little Light of Mine

October 29, 2012

Yesterday the boys and I went to church.  This may not sound monumental, but in reality it is quite significant.  It was our second week of attending church, ever.  A young girl named Grace sang a song she’d been working on to share with us.  The song is “This Little Light of Mine” by Addison Road.  Her song touched me, her song is still in my head and my heart and I want to keep it there forever.

 

Throughout the day yesterday Dallas kept singing bits and pieces of it as we went through our everyday motions.  My heart melted each and every time I heard his sweet voice singing about his little light shining.  As a mother, this is my primary focus, my biggest responsibility, my life’s purpose.  How do I keep my children’s light shining, day after day, through the ups and the downs, through the teenage years, through heartbreaks, through disappointments through all of life’s challenges?  To take it one step further, how do I keep their light shining bright enough to shed that glow on the people they touch throughout their lives?

What does this “light” mean to me?  This light is happiness, love, strong, healthy relationships, contentment, appreciation, gratitude, wonder, positive thinking, having an open mind and an open heart, striving to be the best you and having a general understanding of what’s important in life.  It’s imperative that this light guide our words, our actions and our lives.  Like Dallas, we need to be singing this song and living it out loud, so our motions are always accompanied by our guiding light.

XOXO,

Meg