This is the time of year when we are reminded to be thankful. It’s definitely not something that should only be remembered once a year.

I feel one of my biggest jobs is to teach my little ones to be thankful daily.

We didn’t really start steady nightly prayers with the kids until less than a year ago when our little lady was one and little guy two. We now have a great memorization of the “Our Father” and “Hail Mary” with our three-year-old, and I wanted to go beyond that so we started talking to God more. As adorable as it was to hear my little guy learn “and lead us not I to temptation” this is way better!

Talking to God about our day, our hopes for tomorrow, and what we are grateful for is really what it is all about.

I love to hear the honest feelings he has and his responses as he tried to wrap his head around it. I have prayed with my little guy and said something like, “and we pray that he has a wonderful day at preschool tomorrow” and he would turn to me and say, “I think God said I won’t.”

Just tonight, while saying our “thank yous” my little guy took his turn and said, “thank you for all the bikes in the garage.”

He went on to pray for Mom’s shoes and his toy sword, but I had to laugh a little because we are on vacation in a rental house, the bikes are all too big for him to ride, and we do nothing but walk past them each day. Yet, somehow, he thought they were important enough to include in our prayers.

As I said, we are just moving from rote prayers to talking and personalizing our messages so he often looks around the room and thanks God for his fan, lamp, clock, or his toys.

The important thing is that we are taking the time each day to be grateful for what we have and showing him how lucky he is and to never take anything for granted.

We are so blessed to have this time together as a family. We are lucky to have found such a wonderful place to stay while we are here on vacation.  We are so fortunate to be able to take this time for a long vacation together. It is something I am thankful for each day.

So yes, Buddy, I’m thankful for all the bikes in the garage too.

How do you try to teach your kids to be thankful?

Do your kiddos come up with funny things to be thankful/pray for?