An Attitude of Gratitude

One thing that I am thankful for is: Thanksgivng comes before Christmas. This gives us (parents and pastors) a whole month to teach our children "how to be thankful" before they recieve all their gifts on Christmas. This way we can set up our children for success on Christmas morning. Success in our gift giving is not only giving the gifts, but recieving them with the right attitude. (We spend alot of time buying Christmas presents, but how much time do we spend thinking about what we are going to say when we recieve our gifts).

My children are both attending college now, but I still remember whem my daughter Melissa was a pre-schooler. I loved watching her open presents on Christmas morning. It didn't really matter what was inside the wrapping paper, Melissa would jump up and down saying "It's Barbie! It's Barbie!"

Children are not born with an attitude of graditude. We have to train them to be thankful just like we train them in other areas and here-in lies the challenge. In America we love to buy gifts for our children. If we give lots of gifts without teaching our children to be thankful we are actually giving them a "feeling of entitlement" which can be very deadly.

The bottom line is "I'm more happy when I'm thankful" If we want our children to be happy it's actually more important that we teach them to be thankful than to give them lots of gifts.