Well, friends it’s been a while since I’ve shared a blog like this … Using gratitude to change the climate of your home. These days on the blog, I’ve been busier sharing all the sessions I’ve been shooting, state-of-the-union type blogs updating you on all that’s been happening here at BGP, and plenty of tips on using artwork to display your family photos.
Quick BGP update/side note for you: If you haven’t heard the BGP Motherhood Event is coming on Friday, April 19th, 2024 4 pm -6 pm in Gilbert. Be sure to add your name to the waitlist below for more information and to receive early booking access when booking for the event goes live on April 2nd.
I’m excited to be once again slowing down and using this platform to pass along a bit of encouragement to you.
Recently I’ve been convicted of the power of your words … in particular grumbling and complaining. The subtly of it is what seems to trip me up most. But the Lord has been good at constantly and gently pointing me back to the power of gratitude in our lives.
Small grumbles come here and there, which eventually snowballs into more and more. However, these tiny complaints slowly put you into a very glass-half-empty mindset. It’s easy to look up and find yourself ungrateful for so much.
So, today I’m sharing the power of using gratitude to change the climate of your home, practical ways to implement it and watch a grateful heart take root in your children’s hearts.
I realize that this is not my most groundbreaking blog. It’s nothing new. And you already know all of this … However, it may just be the little reminder you need to finish out this week and start a fresh week on Sunday.
Write Down What You are Grateful For
While the act of being grateful takes hardly any time at all and it is not necessary to write it down, might I make a case for keeping a gratitude journal?
When you force yourself to write it down, it does something neurologic to your mind to visually see it written down (even if you type it!). It solidifies that thought in your mind making it more secure. Now, I don’t know all the neurological components of it enough to explain it to you–not even at a kindergarten level– but Caroline Leaf does! She talks about the power of it in her book Think, Learn, Succeed.
To share a less scientific and more ‘photographer’ perspective on it: I’ve personally found that after years of keeping a gratitude journal, I love looking back at it. Remembering that season… especially the small things I was grateful for back then that I may have forgotten years later.
What small moments do you not want to forget in this season?
I find sometimes that it can be challenging to constantly think of even a handful of things to be grateful for… something worth writing down.
However, nothing is too small to be grateful for, even if it’s as simple as:
- Sunshine
- Fresh air
- A glass of water
- Quiet mornings
- Your morning coffee
- Your cozy pillow last night
- The smell of the candle burning on your desk
- The color of your nails
That simple act of journaling it and looking back years later causes a chain reaction too… Are there things you were grateful for back then that have changed? Do you still have them and are still grateful for them?
It may be as simple as thanking the Lord for the little hands that hold onto your necklace.
When you force yourself to write down or speak around the things you are grateful for
… it changes everything. Your mindset, your heart, and that will naturally affect the entire climate of your home.
How to Gratitude Changes the Climate of Your Home
The mom sets the tone for the whole house. If mom’s snappy, we’re all snappy. When mom is giggly, the whole house is giggly.
If you are grumbling your kids will follow in step. And if you have a grateful heart, your kids will follow in step.
The job of the mom is truly to set the climate of the home, encouraging it to be life-giving, uplifting, and bursting with gratitude.
Get in the habit of not only acknowledging what you are grateful for and writing it down but speaking it out loud in front of your kids constantly. This is where gratitude begins to change the climate of your home
While you are sharing what you are grateful for challenge them to do the same and say 3 things they are grateful for.
Watch how once you see a few good things, you can’t help but observe more and more things you are simply grateful for.
Gratitude breeds gratitude.
“Gratitude turns what we have into enough” It’s so easy to get bogged down with discontent, the antidote is gratitude.
Try it for a morning, and watch it transform your day. Implement it for a day and watch it slowly transform your week. Watch as it takes root in your heart, then your kids, watch it change the climate of your home and life.
In-Grown Eyeballs
As icky as this expression is, it is worth sharing. Too often is easier to focus on the things that are going wrong in your life. You’re looking inward; only at yourself. Everything is focused on how things are or aren’t benefiting you.
The solution to this is simply to reserve it. Look at other people. See their needs and pray for them. The solution is two-fold in effect:
- It allows you to be grateful for all the things you are taking for granted. The simply things we take for granted others are in need of.
- It gives you an opportunity to serve, even if it is as simple as taking their request before the Lord on behalf of them.
At the end of every Daily Audio Bible Podcast, the community calls in asking for prayers. Others call in to pray for others. I found this to be one of the most helpful ways to correct my ingrown eyes and pray for others. As well as celebrate answered prayers along side of them!
Just this week alone after listening to folks call in the DAB, I’ve found myself grateful for a body that is healthy and functioning well – no pain anywhere, my sight, the ability to close my eyes and fall asleep right away, my incredible family relationships, that my parents are still married, and so much more.
All of a sudden even some of the mundane, frustrating moments I find myself grateful for.
How to Practically Begin Using Gratitude to Change the Climate of Your Home
Find ways to incorporate these into your and your kid’s life, making them easy rhythms and habits.
Pick a category
If you are feeling stuck and can’t seem to look past only a few things to be grateful for. I like to play a game, where you pick a category and then spit fire as many things as possible with in it you are grateful for. Your categories may look like:
- Your kids
- A Routine You Love
- Nature
- Food
- Your home
- Your health
- Small things
… and let yourself and your kids go down a bunny trail acknowledging all the smaller things within that you are grateful for. For example:
Category: Our Home
- A roof over our head (easy, cliche … I’ll take it but you don’t get any bonus points for it.)
- The cozy couches
- A pantry and fridge are fully stocked
- The air conditioning especially as the AZ summer is approaching … bonus points here for sure because you can’t even see it
- Our back yard… all the flowers, grass, plants, swing, pool
- The playroom full of toys
The list could go on and on.
Take a Gratitude Walk
Find time in your day or week to go on a gratitude prayer walk.
- Enjoy the day
- Slowly take time to notice the things you are grateful for big and small
- Gets your blood pumping and it will completely transform your day
Conclusion
Expressing gratitude and thanking the Lord for everything is truly such a simple way to change to entire climate of your home… but like everything good in life it takes a bit of intentionality.
The really neat thing about it is how unbelievably easy it is to implement. You don’t have to set aside time, journal, or tie up your sneaks for a walk to be grateful. It takes hardly any work. Just a bit of thinking. And it can completely transform your day.
“Gratitude can transform common days into thanksgivings, turn routine jobs into joy, and change ordinary opportunities into blessings.” – William Arthur Ward
My challenge to you is that before you leave this page… acknowledge 3 things you are grateful for. Bonus points for leaving them in the comments below… I’d love to cheer you on, friend!
And while we’re on the subject… I’m grateful for you! Thanks for reading!
P.S. The BGP Motherhood Event is Coming April 19th!
Before you head on your merry way, don’t forget that the BGP Motherhood Event is coming on Friday, April 19th, 2024 4 pm -6 pm in Gilbert. Be sure to add your name to the waitlist below for more information and to receive early booking access when booking for the event goes live on April 2nd.
