Gratitude

Recently I had to have a long talk with my four year old daughter about what it means to have gratitude. That's not an easy concept for a four year old to grasp, but there is almost nothing as horrifying to a parent to see as when their child acts like something isn't good enough when they have just about everything they could possibly need, am I right. So I had to have that talk. Did she get it? Probably not but I'm sure as heck not going to stop trying to remind her every chance I get that having gratitude for our blessings is probably one of the best things we can do for ourselves. It's what keeps us grounded. It's what keeps us from constantly running after the next best thing. It's what helps us to plant our roots and grow. 

The funny thing is that I can teach it and write about it, but in actuality I haven't really been practicing it myself lately. I'll admit our family has been having it's ups and downs lately so things haven't been easy. But instead of looking on the bright side, I've been using it as an opportunity to complain about almost everything. So that's going to stop right now--so that I can teach my daughter to have gratitude by living it every day.