A family uses the power of gratitude to bring peace to a child during a difficult time. And excerpt from the essay found
HERE.
Jeff and I started to practice the act of daily gratitude with our four children. We desire a life for our children filled with gratitude and hope for the future, not being enveloped by the fear and bitterness that difficulties can bring. Every night at dinner we stated what we were grateful for. And despite a lousy day or a bad test result, we could always find multiple things.
“I am grateful for Cocoa Puffs. They make my belly button happy.”
“I am grateful for new art supplies.”
“I am grateful for the huge, dead tree in the front yard. Some people aren’t lucky enough to even have a dead tree.”
Soon the fear started dissipating and the joy of Emily’s infectious grin returned. Emily and I started writing our daily gratitudes on tags and hanging them from the brittle branches of our dead tree.
Emily’s grateful tree is beginning to blossom with over 400 tags. Hopefully the tree will hold the other 600 tags we have left to hang. And I have never been so grateful for second (and third…) chances for our family and our tree. Working on this project has convinced me that gratitude is a choice, requires consistent practice, and is contagious.
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