Got Gratitude?

Fall Bounty
Originally uploaded by diver227

'Saying thank you is more than good manners. It is good spirituality.'
--Alfred Painter

While Christmas is my favorite holiday in terms of sheer joy, Thanksgiving is my favorite on principle. An entire, federally-recognized holiday dedicated to saying thank you. What's not to love?

It's when I take the time to say thank you that God works miracles in my heart and in my life. Thanks to Himself for cooking fabulous dinners & tucking me into bed every night. Thanks to Mom for sacrificing so much to make sure Brother & I had amazing opportunities. Thanks to Aunts & Uncle for demonstrating how to live lovingly each day. Thanks to dear friends who enrich my life. And thanks to God for all these things and every other good thing in my life. Isn't it funny how your blessings multiply when you stop to count even a handful of them?

Gratitude may just be the best thing ever invented--a tonic for hurts, a way to diffuse anger, a practical way to live even mediocre days in joy. This November, as with other difficult years, I'm especially grateful. Or at least more mindful of how much worse things could be. I have a job where I get to make other people's homes pretty. My truck starts each morning and gets me home safely at night. We have a lovely, warm & dry place to live. My family is all healthy right now and somehow, even the cat is less crabby than usual (a minor miracle).

Reader, what are you thankful for this year? Sit with this question and really mull it over for a minute. Ask your spouse, kids and friends. Are you surprised by what comes to mind? Or, do you maybe feel a little out-of-shape in the gratitude department? If you don't already, take a few moments each day and think of 3 things you are truly grateful for. Try it first thing in the morning, or right before you fall asleep. On your lunch break works too. Moms & Dads: try it with the family around the dinner table. Do this for a week, or better yet, for a month. You'll be amazed at what starts to happen in your heart. You might also find it changes the people around you. Yep, even through something that small.

If my little musing makes you want to add a little more gratefulness to your own turkey & football holiday, here are a few of my favorite ways to infuse gratitude into your Thanksgiving meal:

• Ask your guests ahead of time to think of something they are grateful for & share those thoughts while gathered around the table.
  
• Instead of place cards at the table, make each person a fall-themed bookmark with a gratitude quote or pertinent bible verse written on one side and a quality you love about that person or reason you are grateful for them on the back. Have the person seated next to them read it out loud.
  
• Go around the table and re-cap each person's favorite memory from that year, or favorite childhood memory.
  
• During dinner, play a game with the kids: encourage them to rat out anybody who doesn't say thank -you while passing food around the table. Make that person name something they're grateful for.
  
• If you're a digital shutterbug, crop or edit copies of your recent family photos so that you have a 2"-3" black & white head shot of each guest. Or use a goofy photo they will have to explain. Cut them out and put one on each place setting. Or hole punch and tie them to each napkin as a place card.
  
  My rule of thumb is, use whatever you can think of to get a dialog going about experiences people are grateful for or remember fondly. If all else fails, google gratitude quotes or share a grateful bible verse during grace.
  
  Thank you, dear Reader. Hope your Thanksgiving is fabulous.