A Thankful Heart is a Happy Heart

Thanks to my friend, Renee, we've incorporated something new into our bedtime routine here at the GraceFULL house. Beginning with a live demo at our last roomie reunion, Grace & I now talk about the best/worst of our day. Sometimes it's as simple as "My best was when we snuggled in the morning" - that was Gracie's best reported last night or "Wow! I loved your smile when I was chasing you away from the cookie dough" - mine, last night. Worst - well...those don't come up too often - it's typically, "Noooo, I didn't have a worst today." However, last night Gracie "My worst was when we pinched each other's cheeks too hard." It had just happened-we just got carried away with the "Ohhhh you're so cute" stuff. Ouch!

So our best/worst is a nice transition from our book reading to prayers. I can't remember at what point we added in being thankful. Maybe as an attempt to facilitate Gracie praying rather than just mom. So asking her what she's thankful for was a way I tried to do this. ANYWAY....yesterday, it dawned on me to talk about what a THANKFUL heart is. So yesterday we had this conversation about blessings & what does being thankful look like.

Perusing Mommy Manifesto this morning, I came across this quote that is on a mommy level, but really spoke to the topic I've been trying to live & convey to my youngster. It's worth sharing. Oh, that my heart would exude gratitude such as this~

Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and
more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity.
It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a
friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and
creates a vision for tomorrow.

- Melody Beattieo