A Prayer for Children: Gratitude

How to Practice Gratitude with Kids

How might we help our children be aware of more things to be thankful for and find ways to express their gratitude? While blessings over a meal or nightly prayers may be a regular practice, what else might encourage and enhance the art of gratitude? Here are suggestions:

Consider a weekly practice like “Gratitude Wednesday,” where your family shares thoughts and acts of gratitude throughout the day.

At a meal, give everyone a chance to describe a happy memory and why they chose it.

Create a “Send a Thank-You Card Box” and fill it with handmade or store cards, envelopes, and stamps. Encourage all family members to use it to send thanks not only for gifts received but for acts of kindness now or in the past. This helps everyone get into the practice of mailing cards that bring joy to others.

Explain to children that living from a sense of gratitude helps us be more aware of the good in our lives and helps us feel our connection to God.

For older kids and teens, make time to have one-on-one talks. Be open and supportive as you listen and focus deeply on what they share. State and show your unconditional love, appreciation, and respect for them. Consider asking: “What are you grateful for today?”

For younger children, read stories or books together about appreciating the things around them. Be an example by using positive words and practicing acts of gratitude.

Encourage children to create their own playful song, poem, story, or art about gratitude. Then act it out or do a skit or dance. The following poem is just one tool for feeling the fun and lightheartedness of thankfulness:

HOW TO EXPRESS GRATITUDE

We can write a thank-you note,
Create some happy art,
List the things we’re grateful for
With thank-you’s from the heart.

We pay a kindness forward,
Give something that’s not planned,
Then fill a jar with flowers,
Or lend a helping hand.

I could do a favor.
Or leave a fun surprise.
I can lead you to it,
Then say, “Open your eyes!”

Let’s send thanks across the miles
Or write it in the sand,
Leave blessings on a doorstep
Or put them in a hand.

Singing songs of thanks to nature,
We’ll do a thank-you dance.
Rake leaves into crunchy piles,
Oh, look! Another chance!

We could start a thank-you club,
Play “I am grateful!” games,
Giving thanks for sunshine,
Appreciating rain.

Let’s count this day’s blessings
And those from months before,
Laugh at happy memories,
And plan to make some more.

Every thank-you prayer we say,
Each kindness that we show,
Leave sparkling trails of gratitude
Everywhere we go.

—Rev. Bronte Colbert

A Prayer for Gratitude in All Children

In these moments, we join together in prayer and gratitude. We appreciate and love each other, today and always. We pause now and feel that love. As we count our many blessings, we focus on what we are grateful for: prayers answered, guidance, our friends and family. In this time of quiet stillness, we picture all the people and things we love. We whisper their names. And then we whisper, “I give thanks.”

A Shared Family Prayer for Gratitude

We are so grateful for our children and their delightful uniqueness and precious ways of being. Help us to be understanding, patient, and good examples. What a gift it is to be part of their journey now and through the years ahead. We behold the presence of God within and around them always, and we give thanks. We are so blessed.