Getting kids to willingly say “thank you” can be a frustrating job. In our home, our kids are pretty willing to say thank you… when we remind them. Sometimes they say it on their own, and then we feel like we have arrived. We’ve made it. Other times we have to remind them. And remind them again. And again.
But there is more to thankfulness than just being reminded to say thank you. Sometimes they’re grumpy and nothing can satisfy them. Sometimes their expectations are too high, and what they get disappoints them. How do we direct them to the right path? Besides a lot of patience and long-suffering, Champ Thornton has provided us with a book on guiding our kids in the path of thankfulness. This book is the follow up to Thornton’s Why Do We Say Good Night? (my review here). Not only that, it is a move up in age from Thornton’s You Count! that I just reviewed. There, kids learn that their emotions are given by God. He walks with them and has given them their parents to help them understand their own emotions.
In Why Do We Say Thank You?, the older boy is bored. He has a lack of emotion, and gives into it by not enjoying any of god’s good creation. What do we do when our kids are bored? Thornton points to God through a prayer the boy’s father says one evening after a long “boring” day. We see God’s “own goodness through all things displayed.” Looking at the world and its goodness, its complexity, its beauty, and its power shows us God’s goodness (and his own majestic power). We can walk around and be thankful for singing birds, frosty mountains, chocolate milk, buzzing bees, and warm sunshine.
This book makes practical for kids what David Pao taught in his book Thanksgiving. Parents will want to read the end of the book to help prepare themselves respond rightly to their kids boredom, complaints, and ingratitude. While kids can and do have bad days (just like adults), ingratitude can develop into a pattern where nothing is good enough to whatever it is they want in that exact moment. We as parents need to be able to point our kids to God’s goodness as we see in creation and in our relationships with the church body and in our own family. Instead of focusing on ourselves and what we want, we respond to the grace God has given us and his continued faithfulness to us. Ultimately we can be thankful because God has forgiven us and given us eternal life that we have now. We should enjoy the creation and its Creator. The gift and the Giver. The more we study the works of the Lord, the more we will be able to give thanks to him and be amazed by all he has made for us.
Recommended?
This is a book that is important for both kids and parents. While kids can be ungrateful, parents can grow quickly frustrated and be ungrateful as well for the situation they are in. Let us parents join together with our kids, learn about God’s ways and his mighty works in our lives, and praise him with a lifestyle of thanksgiving.
Lagniappe
- Author: Champ Thornton
- Illustrator: Brad Woodard
- Hardcover: 32 pages
- Age Range: 4–7 years
- Publisher: B&H Kids (August 15, 2023)
Buy it on Amazon or from New Growth Press
Disclosure: I received this book free from New Growth Press. The opinions I have expressed are my own, and I was not required to write a positive review. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/waisidx_03/16cfr255_03.html.
Amazon Affiliate Disclosure: As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
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