Be Grateful.

This month at church, we're working on teaching the kids about gratitude. I mean, it IS Novemeber (which means THANKSGIVING) and all. So, I thought it'd be neat to talk about gratitude a bit this week. I was so convicted this morning when I was teaching. I mean, it's easy to get in front of the kids and tell them what they need to do. But, it is so much harder to actually live it out. Face it, it is HARD to be grateful when things aren't going my way.

Isaiah 25:1 says, "LORD, you are my God; I will exalt you and praise your name, for in perfect faithfulness you have done wonderful things, things planned long ago." God has an amazing plan for each one of is. We have plenty of reasons to be thankful. But, have you ever noticed that this is a little easier said than done? It's easy to be thankful when things are going good. But, it's easier to have a bad attitude when things aren't going our way. What kinds of things give you a bad attitude? Maybe it's fighting with a best friend or maybe it's the neighbor down the hall that likes to blast loud music late at night. Maybe it's when a friend betrays your trust or when a boy breaks your heart. It's hard to embrace the good in these things and give thanks to God for them. But, we are called to fight against the negativity. We are called to have an attitude of gratitude and find a reason to be grateful in every situation. I was talking about this with my kids this morning and one of the girls in the class shared something that her dad had challenged her to, and I extended the challenge to the rest of the class. She told us about how her dad challenged her and her brothers on the way to school to find a way to be grateful in a situation that day that they normally wouldn't be grateful in. Then, she told us about how she had done this. I want to challenge you to do this week. Find one thing each day to be grateful about, even when gratefulness isn't easy. I mean, we have plenty of reasons to be grateful this week. Maybe you're upset that you have ten million papers due this week, but you can be grateful that you have the opportunity to attend school. Write these down as we go so that we can share them and encourage each other! :)