In the second installment of her series: ’Helping every child’s mental wellbeing,’ Amy Smith argues that beyond counting blessings, children need to know who to thank. Discover how Christian families can cultivate joy and resilience by tracing every gift back to God’s faithful care
Anna unclipped her lunch box. A morning of literacy, numeracy and unkind comments had left her feeling more grey than the weather. There didn’t seem much to be thankful for.
She looked down at her ham and cheese bagel, salt and vinegar crisps, crunchy snack bar and pot of grapes. Through the hole in the middle of the bagel, a neon Post-it note shone out, tucked away at the bottom of her box. A hand-drawn smiley face, heart and moon told her that her dad loved her to the moon and back.
Anna’s dad is on the leadership team at church. You go to him for careful, wise advice, but he feels broken at his inability to help his own daughter who seems so quiet and withdrawn. Many parents feel ill-equipped to navigate what feels like a totally new world from the one they grew up in. They are worried about the increasing pressure on their lonely children.
Our children and young people will face grey days, times they feel like the sun is hiding behind a dark cloud
Anna looked at her lunch. The handwritten symbols told her, “I know you. I made this for you. I could not love you more.”
Instead of just seeing a bagel and grapes, she saw the bright glowing evidence of her father’s love for her. Five shiny reasons to be thankful and feel her father’s care – bagel, crisps, snack bar, grapes, Post-it note. It felt like the sun was breaking through the clouds and lighting up the room.
Anna now felt thankful. A neon glow in the middle of a grey day. Later that night, she told her mum about the note. She hugged her dad and whispered, “Thanks”. “To the moon”, he replied, “And back” she answered.
Who knew a lunchbox could contain such care? Anna’s dad did. Anna’s heavenly Father did, too.
give children the tools they need to clear their own path
Our children and young people will face grey days, times they feel like the sun is hiding behind a dark cloud. This is the normal experience of life, the rise and fall, the up and the down, the fluctuation of our mood. As parents, kids’ leaders and others who love children, we can be tempted to want to sweep away every hardship, smoothing their path. This is not realistic or helpful. The Bible tells us that in this world we will face trouble, hard times will come.
A better solution is to give children the tools they need to clear their own path.
In a world where anxiety, depression and school absenteeism are on the rise for our children and young people, while deep friendships, sleep and feeling safe are all dropping, we can all see why noticing and listing the positives is clinically proven to be good for us. It lifts our mood. Gratitude journals, stating 3 good things or listing the high, low and buffalo (the good, not so good and one random thing) of your day at a mealtime are positive ways we can encourage our children to look after their well-being. Great!
Read part one here:
Teach kids that God sees their struggles and has answers
As Christians, we can add an “even better if” to the world’s list of helpful suggestions.
As Anna sat and looked at her lunch box, she could list the positives – a bagel she liked (not the sandwich with horrible crusts), her favourite flavour of crisps to crunch, and grapes without seeds. But what really made her heart sing was the one behind it all, who put it together for her. She would miss the full delight of the gift if she didn’t connect it with the giver, her fab dad.
At Faith in Kids we have produced our new “Looking to God” resources to give Anna’s dad confidence to keep going with the good work he is doing in loving his daughter by talking with her about the goodness of God, knowing it makes a difference. As a family they are going to take one of four Psalms each week to enjoy together.
Our animated thankfulness adventure is on Psalm 104.
The sandwich in our hand is evidence of his goodness and love for us
“He waters the mountains from his upper chambers; the land is satisfied by the fruit of his work. He makes grass grow for the cattle, and plants for people to cultivate – bringing forth food from the earth: wine that gladdens human hearts, oil to make their faces shine, and bread that sustains their hearts.” Psalm 104:13-15
In this Psalm we gallop across the heavens on a cloud chariot. We plunge down a waterfall, float along a river, spot the wildlife and grazing cattle and land in a well-watered field holding a sandwich. This whole journey across creation shows us the goodness of God so we can connect the sandwich in our hand with the one who has put everything in its place so the heavens water the earth, the crops grow, the animals are fed, and we end up with a bagel and grapes to enjoy.
Just like the loving dad who made the lunch, with everything in the right compartment, so God thoughtfully and carefully designed our world. The sandwich in our hand is evidence of his goodness and love for us.
Being thankful to God is good for us. Of course it is because it connects us back to the giver of all good things
So as Christians, parents, families, churches, we can lead the charge in thankfulness. We can be places of joy, hope and brightness standing out against the often-dreary backdrop of life because we have much to be thankful for. Even better, we know the one to be thankful to - a heavenly father who has done more than scribble us a Post-it note to tell us he loves us to the moon and back. He has come from heaven to earth, to the pain of a cross and the darkness of a grave, rising from death and ascending to heaven so we might know forgiveness, restoration and the light of his help on even our darkest day.
“This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.” (1 John 4:9-10)
Our prayer for these resources is that they will inspire thanks to God: around our tables as we eat, on our walks as we notice the world around us, before bed as we pray, in our gratitude journals as we write, in the songs we sing, the pictures we paint and chats we have.
Being thankful to God is good for us. Of course it is because it connects us back to the giver of all good things.
For more on this topic head to “Looking to God – Mental wellbeing in the Psalms” from Faith in Kids
