Monday, November 5, 2012

Gratitude Jar

My daughter came home with a "blessings jar" from Sunday School the other day and I thought what a wonderful idea to remind us to be grateful for what we have and for the people in our lives. We naturally get so busy going from school to ballet or soccer practice, that we tend to forget and stop and just be thankful for what we have. For our friends, our family, our pets, our homes, where we live, good neighbors, the sweet cashier at Publix and I could go on.



My daughter's jar was simply decorated but was filled with color paper with drawings of what she is grateful for,  such as special items and names of people that my daughter adores. She listed her family members, friends, her special lovies and even her dog, Tucker.

If you knew my daughter and her relationship with our dog, you would be shocked she even mentioned him as a blessing! She is not a fan of our beagle/pug mix at the moment. He is our sock bandit and loves to sneak in some Goldfish or whatever he can nab from the hands of my little sweet peas.

So I digress... sorry! My point is that I have been inspired by this "blessings jar" and want to continue a jar for our whole family! I am going to name it our "gratitude jar" in the spirit of the season and every day as a family write down or even draw what we are grateful for that day.

Again, keep it simple. It doesn't have to take a lot of time. It is just the thoughts you put in it. I feel that the more we acknowledge our blessings and make an effort to be more grateful for them, then we are less likely to be negative or talk about what we don't have.

So are you with me Hands on Mom friends? Let's start a "gratitude jar"today and continue to count our blessings, no matter how little you might think they are.

Remember to include you children by letting them decorate the jar. The more you get them involved, the more excited they will be to participate in this project.

Examples of jars could be an apothocary jar (see below), a juice jar, hurricane glass candle holder, or even an empty plastic animal cracker jar. Get creative and just have fun with it. You will be surprised the effect it will have not only on you, but your whole family as you enjoy the spirit of the season.




After you decorate your jar, we would love for you to share pictures of them to inspire more families to get on board of being more grateful of our many blessings!

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