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| Image by John Hain from Pixabay |
Activity 44 from Being You: A Girl's Guide to Mindfulness
I don’t feel well today because I have a cold. Right now my throat is so
sore that it’s painful to swallow.
What a great time to practice gratitude!
Huh?
I can’t say that I’m thrilled about having a cold. I’d much rather not have a cold. But as long as I do have a cold, I’m grateful to be safe and warm inside. And my husband went to the store to buy me soup and ice cream. So I’m grateful to him for doing that. I also appreciate how good they taste, and how they make my throat feel a little better.
What a great time to practice gratitude!
Huh?
I can’t say that I’m thrilled about having a cold. I’d much rather not have a cold. But as long as I do have a cold, I’m grateful to be safe and warm inside. And my husband went to the store to buy me soup and ice cream. So I’m grateful to him for doing that. I also appreciate how good they taste, and how they make my throat feel a little better.
At Thanksgiving dinner a few years ago, my uncle gave a blessing based
on 1 Thessalonians 5:18 “Be grateful in all things.” The idea is to be grateful
IN all things, not necessarily FOR all things. This was quite a moving prayer,
as it was such an awful time for our family—both my mother and my uncle
himself were seriously ill. We weren’t at all happy about the challenges we were facing, but we did feel tremendously grateful for the outpouring of
love and support from our friends and neighbors.
Directions: In the chart below, I’ve given a few examples from my own life. Can you fill in
the rest of the chart with examples from your life? We all have big and small problems to
deal with. You can choose any experience that you didn’t want to happen but that helped
you learned something.
Som
Something Bad That Happened
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Why I Feel Grateful
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I have a sore throat.
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My husband went to the
store to buy juice and cough drops and soup and ice cream. The soup and ice
cream taste good.
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My car broke down.
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I wasn’t injured;
several people helped me.
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My mom got cancer.
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Our extended family,
friends, and neighbors were very kind; I became closer to my sister; I
learned how to help people when a family member is sick.
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© Prufrock Press, 2019. Used with permission. www.prufrock.com
Being You: A Girl's Guide to Mindfulness
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