The Gratitude Book for Thanksgiving Dinner!

The Gratitude Book

Thinking of ideas to make Thanksgiving even more special this year???

Here is an idea!

This Thanksgiving, I will be asking friends and family, form the youngest to the eldest to write in a book what he or she is thankful for.  I am going to make this a family tradition and will have it available for people to read every year. 

I thought about this idea as every year i have that never going away struggle I have expreinced with family and friends to encourage and motivate them to share their thoughts of gratitude at the dinner table.  Many times people do not want to or just have not even thought about that.  As a matter of fact, more often than anything else, we think and say what we need, want and do not have than the gratefulness for having what we have.  Think to yourself, when was the last time you were happy, content or grateful for what you have?  It is hard to go there.

The media bombards us with materialism and pressure to keep up with what is new and what everyone else has.  But imagine if a television commercial offered a different point of view.  How about a television commercial that that reminded you and everyone to say thank you, or to go take care of what you have or to restore something that needs restoration?  That would be just weird right?  But it is not!  Take a moment and look around you and see the abundance that you have and be thankful!  Can you make a list of 10 things you are grateful for and we why?  Try it and see how it works out for you.  Then try this with your children… give them this tradition to remember, to take notice and be thankful.  Who knows you may be surprised by what your children say.

 “Develop an attitude of gratitude, and give thanks for everything that happens to you, knowing that every step forward is a step towards achieving something bigger and better than your current situation.”
– Brian Tracy, Author and Motivational Speaker

Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all others.
- Marcus Tullius Cicero

There is a calmness to a life lived in gratitude, a quiet joy. -
 Ralph H. Blum

Nothing is more honorable than a grateful heart.
- Seneca

Nothing is more effective than sincere, accurate praise, and nothing is more lame than a cookie-cutter compliment.
- Bill Walsh

Two kinds of gratitude: The sudden kind we feel for what we take; the larger kind we feel for what we give.
- Edwin Arlington Robinson

God gave you a gift of 86,400 seconds today. Have you used one to say “thank you?”

- William A. Ward

“If you want to turn your life around, try thankfulness. It will change your life mightily.”
– Gerald Good