by Pat Lamb

Author of: Let the Children Come; Children, Come to Me; When the Stars Fall Down; Widening the Church Doors to Teach the Narrow Way; My Thinking Book; Love is… (Books are available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and www.patlambchristianauthor.com)

Train up a child..

How to Raise Thankful Children

Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good!

For His mercy endures forever. Psalm 118:29 NKJV

We’ve probably all heard comments about the “ungrateful” children of today.  It’s too bad that the children get so much blame for being ungrateful when it is mostly the fault of those who are raising them!  Here are some ideas of how to raise “grateful” children:

1) Don’t praise children too much.  Praise should be for specific things.  When a child is constantly told how special s/he is, they begin to believe it.  They feel no need to try to improve.  After all, they have been told they are wonderful the way they are.  

2) Children should not be given too much.  Yes, they should be given birthday and Christmas presents, but when they earn what they get, they appreciate it more.  They develop a feeling of appreciation for what it takes to obtain what they have, and they are more selective about what they want.  Many children are capable of doing yard sales in a safe community, working to earn money by doing chores, checking sales slips for errors, etc.  “Necessity is the mother of inventions!”  We don’t give children enough credit for what they can do.

3) Teach children how to work.  They can do chores for neighbors and  fix things around the house.  They can go to work with parents to see what the parents have to do to earn money to support them.

4) Teach them to improvise.  When they don’t have exactly what they want, many times what they have can be used to accomplish the activity.

5) Insist that they write thank you notes or tell a giver “thank you” for what they receive..

6) Help them plant and care for what they planted to raise vegetables.  Many things can be raised in pots on the patio or deck.  Children learn about what it takes to provide their food.

7) Take children to visit a food plant to see people working to provide the food that goes on the shelves at the grocery store.

These are a few simple things that can be done to help children appreciate what they have.  When they sit down to eat and say “thank you” to God, they can really mean it!