Blessing Basket

I have been contemplating Thanksgiving over the past few days. I have decided that having Thanksgiving at this time of year is a great blessing to us. It is a great opportunity to reflect on all that you are thankful for. Then you can build up a reservoir of gratitude to fight off the greed that can creep in on you at Christmas time!

I love the saying, "The Best Attitude is Gratitude."

This week, we are learning about Blessings and being thankful. We are starting a new Thanksgiving tradition this year. It is the blessing basket.

AGE RANGE
Old enough to talk. But if your child is not old enough to talk, don't let that stop you and your spouse from doing this in front of your baby. Babies understand long before they communicate.

SKILLS TAUGHT

• Gratitude

SUPPLIES

• Strips or squares of paper
• Pen/pencil
• Basket (or some other container to hold the strips of paper)

ACTIVITY
This is how we are going to implement this:

1. Each night, we say a family prayer together. As we kneel to pray, go around in a circle and list one thing we are grateful for.
2. Write each one on a piece of paper. Let the kids draw pictures of the item if they want to.
3. Put the paper in the basket.
4. On Thanksgiving, read all of the many blessings you enjoy.

When I was in college, I kept a gratitude journal. Each night, I listed three items I was thankful for--three blessings in my life. At first, it seemed difficult to come up with three new things each night. As I did it over time, however, it was hard to pick just three. As we focus on the blessings we have in our lives, we come to recognize all that we have. You see what you focus on. I believe the blessing basket will be a great way to help my children develop the attitude of gratitude.