Teaching Thankfulness

“Hannah. What are you thankful for? Apples?” I prompted, as she held a piece of the juicy fruit to her mouth.

“Yes!” She exclaimed. And then went on to explain why in her assorted mix of French and Croatian. Okay, to be honest, she’s only 23 months old, and it’s not any foreign language, but her version of English… ;)

“Caleb, what are you thankful for?” Danica asked Caleb.

“A lovely week…” He started out slowly. “Lots of tanks..” “You mean irrigation pipes?” Danica wondered. (As Daddy Bear (Nathan) had been setting up the irrigation system in the garden earlier in the day.) “Yes!” He replied. 

Then went on. “I’m also thankful for lots of sunshine.” He finished. You see, here in Victoria, Aus, it is cloudy a lot of the time. And this week, praise God, we had quite a bit of sunshine! That Friday particularly. I had to admit that I was quite thankful for the sunshine too. After all, I come from Queensland!

I may as well give some background to this random questioning. You see, ever since I was little, my family had a tradition of saying our “Thank-you’s” – what we were thankful to God for from things that happened in the week, on Friday night. And the rules were, that we would start from the youngest family member, and work our way up. Well, when my sister, Danica, got married, she kept on with the tradition in her home. It is a great habit to form. And it really is touching to see children, still toddlers, thanking God for the things that make up their week.