by Kylie Ardill
Thanksgiving is a special holiday,
it is always important to give thanks to those we
care about and love. Often, one day in an entire
year is not enough to say thank you to all who care
for us and are kind to us.
Why not use Thanksgiving to
introduce a new tradition in your home in order to
give thanks everyday?
Here's how to set up your Happy
Thoughts Board:
1. Purchase (or use the one you already have) a
refrigerator white board or chalk board which you
can write on and rub off.
2. Attach it to the refrigerator
in a place low enough for younger children who can
write to reach it and write on it.
How To Use It:
Now that you have your Happy THoughts Board in place
you can introduce your new family ritual. Use the
board to write the names of people you need to send
your prayers, thoughts or meditations to.
Children may want to send thoughts
to a child at school who was teased that day, or in
the case of a global disaster they may want to send
these prayers to the victims.
You may wish to send uplifting
thoughts to a friend in trouble or a family member
who is ill.
You or your children may wish to
send thanks to someone who helped them -- perhaps
the bus driver let them on even though they left
their fare at home or someone traded lunches with
them because they didn't like what you made. Maybe
the supermarket checkout operator was especially
nice to you today or a debt collector gave you just
one more week to get that payment in.
Set a time each day -- perhaps
before dinner or before bed when you, as a family,
go through your list for the day and send your
thoughts and thanks to those who helped you and
those who you'd like to help. If you are religious
you may choose to say prayers for those people.
The way in which you give your
thanks and send your "happy thoughts" is entirely up
to you and your spiritual background and the reasons
for you to send your happy thoughts may be wide and
varied.
Remember not to make your
children's thanks and thoughts seem less important
even if to you they're not of global importance, to
them a child letting them trade lunches is a fine
kindness! You can easily keep anyone who requires
prayers or thoughts for a long period of time on the
board and remove any which are completed for that
day and being again the next day.
Children learn gratitude, the
importance of saying thank you and spend their days
on the look out for people they can thank and help
-- and so do you.
Contributed by www.boxplanet.com