It is the last day of the year, early morning, I’m sitting in our living room thinking about 2017 that will

be over in just few hours. It has been an amazing year, it has been a year that gave me the sense of (finally) moving forward together to take hold of our original design as a family. My eyes went on the “thanksgiving wall” we have in our living room.

The thanksgiving wall has been Vane’s idea, every morning during our breakfast she asks each one of us what we are thankful about, then she writes it down on the post-It note and stick it on the side of a bookshelf. So many colorful and small notes of being thankful about.

As I read them one by one, my heart started filling with faith, hope and courage. Some of these notes sound funny, some are deeply moving and some are philosophical coming out of hearts. This daily ritual taught me some principles and benefit of being thankful.

Giving thanks: Vanesa and me talked about things and circumstances that has been diff

icult, circumstances and needs that seems unchanging every passing year. But the scripture tells us to be thankful IN all circumstances, this means being thankful works for our good.

It is not always easy to be thankful ABOUT The circumstances, we cannot change the circumstances but we could change our attitude IN the circumstances. Being thankful is the key for changing the attitude. When attitudes are changed hope and faith rises within and strength runs through the inner being.

Create an opportunity: Under different circumstances of life it’s difficult to remember about being thankful and so creating a habit is even more difficult. But Vane through her initiative created an opportunity for us as family to be intentional about being thankful. Then made it visible by posting it. Now it’s almost a daily ritual in our family about the breakfast table. There is always something to be thankful about.

As a human being we are interdependent, our life is filled with families, friends and people. This applied so much to us as a family. We often thank God for friends, families and people we are surrounded with. Each one enriches our life, some became part of the miracle we’ve been praying about and some made us part of miracle they’ve been praying about. In either of these circumstance it’s very joyful. Creating an opportunity will create habits and it will influence our surrounding. Believe it or not you are an influencer.

Creating a habits and shaping culture: In our generation the virtue of being thankful is slowly missing. The dominant worldviews are pushing a culture of “materialism”. People are bombarded by the thought that our identity depends upon the things we have and not who we are. As a result we don’t value what we have and are always looking for the “latest” in the market.

Vane and I have to deal with this attitude in our children very often. As a parents it’s our responsibility to disciple our children. So by everyday giving thanks for the friends, families and people and things we are making them realize how rich we are. It’s also time to be joyful and celebrate.

When we shared with friends a small note of Yaron or Joshua thanking about them, our friends were grateful with the thoughtfulness. Once I asked my students to write a note of thanks for their parents about something that they are thankful about, many parents were surprised and glad. As a result one father even bought a thing that the student had been asking for long time.

In our family we are able to take a step forward to create a culture of thanksgiving and culture of honor.

Thank you for being part of our lives!!! We thank God for you.

“It’s one thing to be grateful. It’s another to give thanks. Gratitude is what you feel. Thanksgiving is what you do.” –Tim Keller