Gratitude

Well, i'm up late making a few things for Thanksgiving & I am just thinking about how grateful i am & how I don't want to take anything for granted. And i know I do & it stinks to know that. How could I ever be ungrateful? Not only for what I do have but for the things that I am not even aware that I may have been spared from...or the things i wasn't spared from that all play a role in a bigger picture. Gratefulness. I have been wondering how to instill a heart of gratitude in the hearts of my children & I am becoming so aware that it must start with me. A wonderful teacher posed the question to me as to whether or not I am allowing opportunities for my children to be grateful....or am I hindering that by providing all of their needs before they even know they need it? Do they even know how incredible it is that there is a hot meal on the table of a heated home with family always around? Do they know that we should be grateful for this? Do I? I do. I really do - but I forget to say thank you. So i can list all of the things I am grateful for & it would go on forever.......so i'll spare you & start writing it in my journal. But on this Thanksgiving I hope I will remember that all I have is simply a gift that I did not get for myself. And I hope to never forget that I have more than enough - so much that maybe another would be grateful if I would share. All of these important lessons that I am going to teach my children - will apparently have to first penetrate my own heart again & again. So, Lord make me grateful...may I never forget that every good & perfect gift is surely from up above.
Happy Thanksgiving.