Fostering an Attitude of Gratitude

Posted Tuesday, November 17, 2009, at 7:44 AM

It is not easy to get children to experience a genuine attitude of gratitude. Many children do not know what it means to do without things they need or want. Even though some children in poverty do not have as much as others, they often pick up an attitude of entitlement from parents or other associates. Unfortunately, that attitude of entitlement seems to permeate our current society. Rather than be thankful for what they have, they often become angry that someone else doesn't see to it that they have more.

We need to start with children to help them be truly thankful for what they have. Will telling them to be thankful cause them to be thankful? Probably not. As with most of the things we teach children, experience is the best teacher. I can still hear my mom saying, "We never miss the water 'til the well runs dry." How true! In light of this truth, we may need to institute what may seem to be some drastic measures to help children appreciate what they have. However, these activities can be games that the whole family plays and be fun experiences that will be remembered for years. Here are some suggestions:

1) Choose a day when there are no important trips that have to be made. Either pretend or actually disable the family vehicles so that there is no way to travel by automobile. Everyone must either stay home or walk. No one is allowed to car pool.

2) After the children go to bed, remove all food from the refrigerator and pantry. Make sure there are no snacks stashed away. It will not hurt the family to go a day without food unless there are medical situations requiring they not do so. After all, the Muslims go all day until evening without eating for several days during their Ramadan observance. Some families have been known to schedule a day of fasting each week and give the food money to charity.

3) Take away all means of communication with the outside. No cell phones may be used and other phones can be hidden.

4) Turn off the electricity for a day or so. (Some have already experienced this during ice storms.)

5) If you have a fireplace, on a cold day turn off the furnace.

6) Make arrangements for teens to go on mission trips to a foreign country with a church group. Teens who do this are never the same again.

None of these activities will really hurt the children and will help them to truly appreciate the things they had to do without. Of course, health situations may prevent the use of some of the ideas, but perhaps others can be substituted. Parents can be very creative in getting the point across that we need to be thankful for what we have.

Train Up a Child

By Pat Lamb

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"Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it." Proverbs 22:6 Pat will have comments and suggestions about raising children based on her training and many years of teaching. Pat first began teaching Sunday School while in 7th grade at Verona, Missouri, where she was born and raised. After high school graduation there, she attended Missouri University and graduated with honors with a degree in Vocational Home Economics. She later completed training and received certification for elementary teaching in New Mexico. She has taught Home Economics (including child care), kindergarten, second grade, and substitute taught at several schools at all grade levels. She was awarded the Missouri Distinguished Adult Basic Education Service Award for distinguished leadership and dedication in all aspects of Adult Basic Education in the community, region, and state. This award was given to one GED teacher in the state. She was also invited to be included in "Who's Who of American Educators" in 2007. She was listed in Who's Who of American Women and Who's Who Among American Business Women. Pat has recently written a book titled, "Let the Children Come" which will be released in the spring. In addition to classroom teaching, Pat has taught in churches and Sunday Schools through the years. She served as Acting Children's Director at First Baptist Church in Albuquerque, NM. She also directed an Office of Navajo Economic Opportunity preschool on the Navajo reservation. She currently teaches GED at Gibson Vocational Technical School in Reeds Spring and taught GED classes for 15 years at Blue Eye and Shell Knob. Pat and her husband, Keith, who presently serves on the Reeds Spring School Board, have four grown children and three grandchildren. They are approaching their 50th wedding anniversary. "Our children and grandchildren have taught us a great deal and are still teaching us," Pat says. "I look forward to sharing some of this information with readers. I don't claim to have all the answers, but perhaps my comments can be of some help. It is not easy to raise children in today's world where they are constantly being bombarded with temptations and varying ideas of what is right and wrong."

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