How to Help Children (and Adults) Say "Thank You"

Or How to Help You be Thankful too!

It's the worst part of winter right now. The days are still short, still to cold to play outside every day, and there is no Christmas to be excited about. We are living in dreary dark days and needing graciousness for one another.

I don't think most of us enjoy haranguing our sons and  daughters to say "thank you." Repetition, groans, eye rolls, and not genuine thankfulness all go with making kids say "thank you."

But I noticed something early on with my firstborn is that I didn't have to prompt him very much to say "thank you" if I was consistently using it like I should. I also noticed when I stop, look a child in the eye and give them an unexpected encouraging word, they encourage each other in the same way.

How to Help Children Learn the Lord's Prayer

Recently, we have been helping our 5 and 3 year old memorize the Lord's Prayer. Our church says the Prayer together every week and learning it is a way to further involve our children in our church service. Don't misunderstand, I don't believe that by my children learning the Lord's Prayer, it will magically create in them awesome faith or faith at all. It won't solve all our problems or make my kids perfect. But it is a discipline, and a wonderful passage of Scripture they can fall back on.

I started working on it with our 5 year old, but did not expect the 3 year to memorize much. Wow! He surprised me, the 3 year old has the Lord's Prayer better memorized than his older brother.

My husband and I started out by incorporating the Prayer into our bedtime routine with the kids. The kids would say parts of it, but were not excited about it.

How to Start Practicing Advent

I met a friend for coffee this evening and had the rare experience of riding in the car by myself and not desiring silence. So I turned on the radio. I had not realize how frazzled I was supposed to be about Christmas. I didn't realize I had to get a gift for everyone I know or ELSE!!!! I stopped and thought about it. I had not realized how not frazzled I was feeling until listening to the commercials.

We don't have cable, the shows my kids watch are on Netflix or Prime, so we just don't see many commercials. I mostly listen to music on my iPod so I don't hear many commercials there. I quit subscribing to magazines that make me dissatisfied with what I own. And I forgot; I forgot it's supposed to be crazy and stressful and cost lots of money.

Just don't. Don't allow someone else to determine your checklist. I may not get my Christmas cards out till after Christmas. Oh well. If someone get offended, I just won't send them one next year. I schedule a lot of our social gatherings during the 2 weeks of Christmas. The kids are out of school and more people are off of work. I don't decorate the whole house. Just a few fun key items you love. Our tree is 4 feet tall and is on a sofa table behind the couch. The baby can't knock it over and I don't yell at the kids to leave it alone. My children still think it's a wondrous thing.

I didn't grow up with advent, so attending a liturgical church has been a learning experience. But this right now is not Christmas. Christmas starts December 25th and goes on for 2 weeks. This, right now, this is Advent.

Give Thanks (even when you are grumpy)

I bought this banner for $5 at Target a few weeks ago. Not that it matters, I just didn't want you to think I am super crafty, I didn't make it.

And I didn't even put the banner up to show how thankful I am; because most of the time I'm not. I put the banner up in my dining room to

Thanksgiving Chain in Progress

I think I need to clean my camera phone lens! Please excuse the poor picture.

I am so glad we started our thankfulness chain in October this year. If we miss a day here or there, we still have plenty of time to have a nice long chain. But it's also become part of a daily habit for us as a family. My sons are usually the first to remember that we need to fill in our links for the day and love to show it off to anyone who walks through our door. During the day my sons will mention things to be thankful of as they anticipate writing them down in the evening and stapling them to our list of thanksgiving.

Happy Autumn

I grew up in Texas. It's hot. It's hot almost all of the time. My brother and I were talking on the phone yesterday and it's still 90+ degrees there. So fall was always this nice nebulous idea, but not something I had really experienced. The leaves on the tree in our front yard wold turn brown overnight and fall off all at once. Lots of raking and little beauty. Having lived a few more places as an adult, I discovered I like autumn. I enjoy the cooling temperatures, the changing leaves, wearing a sweater, and (of course) the excuse to consume more hot drinks!

Along those lines, I believe Thanksgiving is overlooked. Right now the stores are full of things for Halloween, and before theses items are cleared, Christmas will be in full swing. Can I encourage you to pause, to breathe, to give thanks? To enjoy this momentary pause of beauty with the end of the growing cycle? There is plenty we all have to complain about, but let's try to take advantage of this little pause (a pause we may have to create) and make this a season of giving thanks. Not for just one day (or a few hours between the turkey, the game and the midnight store opening), but a season of thanks.