Teaching Thankfulness

Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 

I don't know if any of you parents love to give your children gifts as much as I do!  Any chance I get, I love to give her a gift and see her light up with excitement!

I had no idea the unthankfulness I was planting in her heart by showering her with gifts on a regular basis.  She is my only child.  It doesn't require lots of money to give her a gift here and there.  After all, God loves to give his children gifts, right?  

Being caught up in the feel good of my own desires by showering Katie with gifts, I realized I was sending her into a destructive down-spiral.  Her closet was bursting at the seams and she was sweetly requesting more and more at every store trip!  Katie is pretty well behaved and self controlled.  It took one visit to the store when I denied her request for me to see what I had created.  This was becoming a pattern of doom! While this may be typical behavior for a child in the world's standards, we still answer to a God who delights in thankfulness.  Spanking seemed irrelevant to this matter of the heart.  How do you spank thankfulness into her heart?  Taking her toys away seemed mean and harsh.  Jeramey and I devised a good plan of labor and reward.  

For 3 or 4 weeks, Katie has begun doing chores outside of her normal duties.  Since she lives here, eats here, and messes here; she pulls her weight and picks up after herself.  She does this splendidly without complaint 90% of the time.  Her room and bathroom are her responsibilities alone. Matters of the kitchen, laundry, yard, other cleaning, and animals, she is merely my assistant.  Since we live in the city with modern appliances, you have to get creative! We decided to give her all dishes (3x a day) and daily animal tending at a salary of $10 a week with a pay date of Friday.    

Since we have a puppy in training process the size of a full grown dog, this part of the labor has been quite a task for her.  When she opens the door, Charlie (the puppy) will blast through her into the house and refuse to go back outside, holding his ground.  He weighs close to 50lbs which is a couple pounds more than Katie. Getting him back outside has been quite a task for her, but she has become very creative by coercing him with treats or dragging him by the collar!  This has been quite a patience lesson for her!  I think she's mastered the "catch more flies with honey" theory! 

So today was the big day!  We emptied the piggy bank and took off to Hobby Lobby to get the bear kit she has been eyeballing and saving for since the beginning of her hard work.  I can't say we've completely mastered the art of thankfulness in one month: but  I can say I saw the joy on her face of earning her own reward and that was more precious for her soul than any gift I could ever give!  I am so proud of her! 

On our way to Hobby Lobby! 

Sweet Reward!