“Count your blessings;
Name them one by one.
Count your blessings;
See what God has done.
Count your blessings;
Name them one by one,
And it will surprise you what the Lord has done.”

Sounds familiar?

As humans, we are constantly looking for more things to make us happy. Thinking and reflecting on the things we have whether big or small will help us to be grateful.

At a Thanksgiving Dinner in 1965, Sir Chimnoy suggested dedicating a day in the year to show gratitude. This meeting birthed World Gratitude Day and the first was held on the 21st of September, 1966.

Of course, we don’t have to wait for one day of the year to be grateful. Gratitude is a part of our daily lives and if you can deliberately show gratitude constantly, you’ll live differently. The thought of #worldgratitudeday is heartwarming though.

Here are 7 gratitude activities that you can start cultivating today with your children to help everyone in the family stay grateful:

Saying “Please” and “Thank You”

Giving to Charity

Doing Chores Together

Having Family Meals Together

Having a Gratitude Jar

Having a Gratitude Journal

Volunteering

Saying “Please” and “Thank You”

Cultivate the habit of saying please and thank you when appropriate and teach your children to do the same.  Your children are more likely to do what you do than do what you say. 

Appreciate your children when they do things for you and they’ll appreciate you when you do things for them.  You have to use these two words regularly for this to stick.

Giving to Charity

Many people around you need some of the things you have. You can take some time to sort things that are in very good condition that you can give to others. You may never know that what you have may be the answer to someone else’s prayers if you don’t give it out.

Doing Chores Together

Having your children do chores is a great way to teach them gratitude. They’ll come to understand how much work you put into making food, having a clean home, and caring for them.  This way, they wouldn’t take what you do for them for granted, but rather, they would appreciate your work.

Having Family Meals Together

Family mealtime can be a great time to talk about what everyone is grateful for.

These days, many families do not eat together because of the busy schedules of the parents.  You can however be deliberate about having meals together at least once a week.

At the table, you get to create sweet intimate memories, teach good table manners, and ask what everyone is grateful for that week.  Isn’t that fantastic?

Having a Gratitude Jar

Another activity that could improve the feeling of gratitude in families is having a gratitude jar.

You can have a jar or a big box filled with thankful notes from each family member throughout the week or month.

You can choose a particular day of the month these notes are read. This usually builds a lot of lively and beautiful memories for families.

Having a Gratitude Journal

Grooming children to have a gratitude journal is a powerful way to ingrain gratitude and feelings of happy contentment in them.

The gratitude journal is a beautiful journal where your children write down thankful thoughts, ideas, or blessings that they have witnessed in their day or week.

Keeping a gratitude journal is a very practical way to help ingrain gratitude in kids. It is fun and highly creative. It is a good habit that also helps them enjoy the process of writing.

Volunteering

Volunteering will help your child nurture his sense of gratitude.  Your child could volunteer to teach your neighbour’s son struggling with Math, check on a friend who’s absent from school, or help his grandparents over the weekend. 

Volunteering teaches your child that everyone faces problems and needs help at one point or the other. Your child will in turn appreciate the things he is good at or could help with.

Would you be trying out any of these activities?

Or have you been practising any of them with your family?  Let us know in the comments section.