Teach Your Children to Be Grateful

By Haven Caylor

“Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow.”- Melody Beattie

This past October, Ray and the kids and I were doing some shopping in Venice, Italy just yards away from St. Mark’s Square in a shop filled with Murano glass. It was our second time there in the past two years, and the owner had already said in English with his Italian accent, “I remember you! How those lovely babies have grown!”

After we bought our Murano angels and Santa Claus to add to our Murano Christmas collection, the owner called Ammon over to choose a “gift.” She chose a beautiful, red Murano heart necklace, grinned her wide grin and said, “Thank you!”

The owner smiled back, placed his hands lightly on either side of those cheeks and said, “Bella, bella! And for the boy, how you say… a marble.” Then the owner handed Carter a Murano glass marble with a “floating” goldfish. Carter’s eyes lit up, and in his most sweet and gracious 3-year-old voice said, “Thank you sir!”

This time the owner’s words came with laughter and that famous song-like, Italian inflection, “What a good boy, eh?”
I couldn’t help but smile and beam with pride at my gracious children. Being thankful and grateful can be so simple and takes very little effort. Innocent children are masters in showing true gratefulness. But were their words of graciousness a learned response? Yes. Were they truly happy and thankful in what they received? Yes.

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