A dad once told me about an outing he and his 7 year old son took to an Indian’s game. He had gotten the time off work, paid for great seats, purchased goodies to eat and souvenirs to remind his son of their fun time together.  As the game ended the dad felt a strong sense of irritation toward his son. “Not once did he say thank you. So I let him have it.” He scolded his son for being so ungrateful.  They walked to the car in silence. What troubled this dad was a feeling that his irritation had snuffed out their fun time together and left them both disgruntled.  The dad lamented, “It ruined everything, but didn’t my son need to learn that it’s important to be grateful?”

YES! It is very important. Gratitude enlarges our hearts and strengthens our love.  However what might this scene have looked like from a different perspective?  What if the dad taught his son gratitude by being grateful? “I’m so grateful my boss gave me the time off to be with you.”  “I’m so grateful to be able to sit here and enjoy a hot dog with you.”   Young children learn to say “I love you” because people say it to them. Children learn to be grateful when we model it for them.  Of course we need to prompt them too, so that they learn to respond with a “thank you” at appropriate moments. However, a parent’s gratitude can ignite words from a child in return, “I’m grateful too, dad” – Priceless.