The Perfect Thanksgiving Gift
Do you have a loved one that you want to shower with love. At this time of year we are surrounded by ideas of how to be grateful for what we have been given. Would you like to show gratitude to one person for what they have done for you? Here is an idea of how to shower them with gratitude and let them know they are loved.
When our oldest daughter became a teenager, we quickly realized the truth behind what many people jokingly warned us about. Teenager brains are wired a lot differently than adult brains! We had some conflicts and differences in opinions and we often didn’t see eye to eye. Still, there were those times when we’d have precious moments of love and appreciation even during those difficult years.
When our daughter was in her older teenage years, we began to see some transformation in her. She started to show signs that she understood better why we held her to certain standards and that our underlying interests were in her wellbeing.
For one of Derek’s birthday gifts during this time, she surprised him with a thankful jar. It was a large mason jar she had painted blue (his favorite color) and decorated with items that helped him remember who it was from.
More impressive than the outside of the jar was the jar’s contents. It was filed to the brim with little notes of gratitude towards my husband and the things she loved about him. He put it on his desk and loved pulling one out every day to start his day off on a positive note. It has been a lasting treasure for him.
This thankful jar is a great way to shower someone with love. You could do this for parents, grandparents, children, friends, aunts and uncles etc.
How to make a thankful jar:
Get a jar and label it gratitude or thankfulness or thanksgiving.
Decide who you want to be grateful for.
Cut out slips of paper and set them next to your jar.
Every day have your family write down a couple of things you are grateful for and place the slips in the jar.
Watch as your jar fills up and you realize how much this person means to you.
You don’t have to just do this around Thanksgiving though. As shared above, creating a jar for someone that needs some encouragement or just to show them your appreciation is a long-lasting gift. You can follow the same steps noted above, but instead you just write down on the slips of paper what particular characteristic that person has that you are grateful for. Writing down the why makes what you are saying more sincere and helps your love for them grow. Then give them the jar and encourage them to open one every day or maybe whenever they are feeling low.
Our family decided to do this for one of our sisters. Instead of doing a jar though, we taped each slip of paper to a piece of chocolate. It was fun to have her text us months later, and she would let us know that she ate another piece of chocolate that day and felt very loved by what had been written.
We hope you all fill your lives, your homes, and your hearts with gratitude and thanksgiving.
Other ways to Increase Your Gratitude:
