Thankful Thursday

Today's Thankful Thursday must be dedicated to my son. I am thankful to get to be his mother and to be charged with the job of raising a confident, faithful, loving, respectful and sensitive adult. I am thankful for the little teaching moment I had with him last night on the very topic of gratitude. It went a little like this:

Last night I sat with him waiting for him to say his evening prayers (he still wants us to sit by him while he prays). He started his prayer, "Dear Father in Heaven, I thank thee...." and that is where he basically stopped. And for nearly 3 minutes I heard him say things like "umm" pause "hmmm" pause etc etc. I finally got frustrated enough with him about not having anything to say that he was thankful for that I stopped him and told him that I was bothered that he could not think of one thing he was thankful for when everything we have "this room, your bed, your clothes, the food we eat, the house, the car and even the chance to get to have a lovely day at the park today was because God blessed us with these things and we need to be thankful for them" I then told him that I was going to go help Corilynn with getting to bed and when I got back he was to have thought of things he could be thankful for and we would try again with his prayers.

When I got back he started his prayer again, "Dear Father in Heaven, I thank thee for my hair, my head, my skull, my brain, my eyes, my nose, my ears, my teeth. I thank thee for my spine, my stomach and my lungs and my kidneys and my bum and my pee pee and my legs and my feet and my toes. I thank thee for my arms and my hands and even my fingers. I thank thee for my bed and my sheets and my house and my sisters (Plural?) and my dad and the trees and the park and the car and my toys. I thank thee for my movies and my cousins and my grandmas and grandpas and my bike. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen"

Hooray! My mood went from irritated with him melting to humor to deep happiness. I was nearly chuckling to myself by about halfway through the prayer with the detail about every part of his body and every little thing he could think of he would be grateful for. In the end I was so glad to have gotten to hear him express his gratitude for the things we have been blessed with. I gave him a big hug and told him how much better a prayer that was and doesn't it feel good to be thankful? He agreed. I told him when we show Heavenly Father that we are thankful for the blessings he has given us, he wants to bless us more. **CLICK** "wow, Mom! That is cool, how do you know that" - Because Lyman I am more and more blessed the more I take the time to reflect on the things God has blessed me with.

Lets all be a little more thankful!