Gratitude

For Family Home Evening Monday night, we talked about gratitude.  I hope to continue this theme for another few weeks.

First, we discussed what gratitude is and how we show it to others, such as saying thanks, writing a thank you note, doing something nice for someone in return, as some examples.  We talked about how to express gratitude to our Heavenly Father, such as saying thanks in prayer and in trying to do good for others.

We read the scripture story of the Ten Lepers from the New Testament .  We talked about what Christ was teaching us about gratitude in this parable.

We started our gratitude jar (a little late, but better late than never).  Every night, one family member will share and write down one thing they are thankful for.  My plan is to read all our blessings on Thanksgiving Day. (I'll post the jar a little later.)

Afterwards played a game.  Each person took a little handful of Reese's Pieces.  Then everyone had to name one thing they were grateful for for each Piece.  Daddy grabbed the biggest handful, so he shared some of his "blessings" with the boys so they could still participate.  This was a big hit.  It was interesting how the kids started off naming more material things, like cars and toys, then people they cared about, then moved on to more spiritual blessings, such as a Savior, the temple, completely unprompted.  Mr. One was having so much fun naming things he was grateful for, he didn't want to stop.  Even Mr. Two joined in and named some things he was thankful for.

We learned the song "Thanks to Our Father" from the Primary Children's Songbook.

I personally feel so grateful for the many many blessings we have recieved, especially this year.  Isn't it amazing how trials really help you recognize just how much Heavenly Father is blessing you?  I hope we can keep this "attitude of gratitude" all year long.