Teaching gratitude

I was watching a young mother teaching her children to say thank you after I had given them some W & W's.  If you don't know what W & W's are I need to explain.  (I learned this from a fellow pastor, by the way.)

 

W & W's are upside down M & M's.  The two Ws stand for water and the Word.  This is how we talk about baptism in our church with little children.

 

It occurred to me as she was reminding them to say thank you that she wasn't really teaching them to be grateful, only teaching them the form.  The actual feeling of gratitude comes when it does and isn't so easy to teach or to force.

 

I have spent so much time talking about being grateful, and stewardship as a response to everything God has given us.  I will never stop doing that by the way.  I believe that is how Christians live.

 

But perhaps when people are beginners at this stewardship thing, we should do what we do with young children and just teach them how to say thanks.  Help them to see what is an appropriate response to all that God has given them.  If and when they discover how grateful they are and how good God has been to them, they will be grateful to us for helping them learn how to give.

 

We teach children when we help them to manage their money and to give some away.  We help young couples when we help them set up their finances with giving as number one.

 

And we teach it to congregations even when they are worried about the bottom line.  Then we grow into the understanding that God will take care of us and that God has so far provided and will continue.

 

And we give thanks as we go.  We give thanks for the water and the Word.  We give thanks for the abundance we receive.  Sometimes because we have been taught and sometimes because we have learned with our hearts.

 

Lord, In everything we give you thanks.  Amen

 

 

  

 

Copyright (c) 2004, The Rev. Dana Reardon. All rights reserved. Used by permission. Email her at mspastor@aol.com.
 

The Rev. Dana Reardon is pastor at St. Paul Evangelical Lutheran Church, Warwick, RI.  A lifelong Lutheran, she came to ordained ministry after 21 years in nursing, mostly in pediatric intensive care.  She graduated from Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia in 1998 and served 4 ½ years in Upstate New York before becoming a New Englander.  She is still trying to understand the accent.  While in the Upstate New York Synod she chaired the Stewardship Team.  That began her fascination with what makes stewards -- and more, what makes for generosity. She has three amazing daughters: Pastor Reardon says much of what she knows of life she learned from them.