This year has brought some stress, challenges and disappointment to everyone, but one of the best ways to stay positive and grounded in difficult circumstances is to maintain a thankful attitude.
November is the perfect time of year to renew a focus on gratitude. As a matter of fact, being intentional about thankfulness all year long brings some long-lasting benefits. Most importantly, finding joy in thankfulness can be a fun family affair.
Here are some fun family games and activities that will keep everyone remembering the good things in life:
- Play some blessing bingo.
Create a bingo board filled with things that make your family thankful. Repeatedly calling out your blessings to your family is bound to bring those positive things to the forefront of your minds. When someone gets a bingo, you can even have that person share some favorite memories or associations from each of the blessings that were part of the winning lineup.
- Create some reflective artwork of good memories and favorite things.Documenting your blessings in creative ways is a part of cherishing them. Have everyone in the family make some drawings, paintings or other types of artwork inspired by the things you are thankful for and place the artwork in a prominent place in the house. Every time you walk by, think about what the art represents.
- A game of “grateful telephone” will make everyone laugh.The simple game of telephone is always a good way to stir up some laughs with younger kids, as the message is almost always changed by the end of the line. If you have littles, play the game of telephone by stating a blessing or something that makes you thankful. If the message has changed by the end, the person at the end must guess the original message.
- Create a scavenger hunt of blessings.
Don’t just talk about your blessings-get competitive in your ability to remember and document them. Come up with a list of things your family is thankful for and divide it in two. Team up and go around your home, or perhaps the whole city, and take pictures of the different blessings on your list. Perhaps you’ll drive to a familiar park and take pictures of your favorite spot, or your team might capture an image of your favorite family game.
The team that documents everything on their list first wins, but they also must reflect on why they are thankful for the family members on the other team.
- Use your blessings to inspire charades or Pictionary. Charades and Pictionary are always favorite family games-just consider focusing the content a bit. Let the things you act out or draw be things the family considers blessings. The game is bound to result in lots of laughs and will give insight into what stirs gratitude in other family members.
- Keep a thankful jar. Having something to reflect upon always is important. Write out different things you are thankful for and put them on strips of paper in a jar. Any time one of the kids begins complaining or feeling a bit down, take out some of the strips of paper to read and reflect upon. Follow that up with writing another blessing on a new strip of paper and putting the replacement in the jar. Make it a point to have everyone write out two blessings for every complaint they voice.
Most importantly? Don’t limit this activity to the kids-make sure they see you practicing it as well.
- Be intentional about creating new memories.
This year has given us enough less-than-stellar circumstances, so work to create new memories to overshadow the negative. It might be something as simple as watching the stars, taking a walk or going on a drive together. Find a new place in nature to enjoy and use that time together to reflect on the positive.
- Use music to boost spirits.
If your family has musical talent, why not create a fun (and perhaps silly) song that lifts spirits, makes everyone smile and helps them remember their blessings? Not everyone is that musically talented, so perhaps create your own playlist of happy-memory recorded music everyone loves. Music often sets the mood, so playing positive music around the house is bound to make everyone appreciative of the small things in life.
As a bonus, consider adding dance moves to the music. Singing and dancing around the house in a positive, grateful spirit is bound to create some hilarious memories you will cherish for a long time.
- Create a thankfulness memory box.
Have a special box where you collect keepsakes from favorite memories and good things you experience in life. It might be a rock from a special walk, a souvenir from a trip or a scarf that reminds you of Grandma. Go through the items from time to time and reflect on why you put them in the box. You could turn the items into time capsule treasure that you bury and reflect upon in the future.
When you engage in these games and activities, you might find your family comes to count some surprising things as blessings. Even though it all seemed like chaos at the time, perhaps the kids really did appreciate your ability to teach them math when school was cancelled, and perhaps the kids really enjoyed getting to eat lunch with you every day when you were working from home. You might also realize the extra family time this year was a unique gift, especially considering the kids might be all grown up the next time you blink.
When you are intentional about being thankful together, the whole family can become closer.
Allison Gibeson is a Lee’s Summit writer and mom who is looking forward to keeping a thankful jar.