I know I can't be the only one fighting the "I wants" in my home. If I were, Kristen Welch of We Are THAT Family wouldn't have needed to write Raising Grateful Kids In An Entitled World . . . a book that has already sold so many copies during the pre-order that they've sold out of the Global Family Kit that was first offered in the pre-sale.
If I'm being honest, my kids aren't the only ones struggling with the wants. We're doing our best to live simply. We've prioritized our Compassion children in our budget. I have helped build homes Amor Ministries. I have virtually visited the slums of Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic. God is seemingly giving me a dose of perspective on a regular basis. While trying to show our kids what it would be like to have to haul water I got a lesson in perspective about a vacation to Disney I'd been holding on to like a god.
Even with all of that I look around my home and I want new cabinets, I want a bathtub I can actually soak in, I want new furniture that wasn't previously owned . . . I want. I want. I want.
Honestly, because we eat nothing but rice and beans once a week, we take our kids to events like the Compassion Experience, because we pray nightly for others, many of whom we've never met, I signed up for the launch team of Raising Grateful Kids in An Entitled World thinking we had a pretty good handle on discouraging entitlement.
What I didn't expect was to be challenged as much as I was. I looked in the mirror and saw way too much entitlement in me. While I was expecting my kids to be thankful with what they had, and not ask for more, I wasn't doing the same. I was comparing myself to others in my upper middle class neighborhood and looking at what I didn't have. As Kristen so eloquently writes in the book, "If we are going to compare ourselves to those who have more, we must also compare ourselves to those who have less."
I've been busy telling my kids to focus on those who have less, while I have been too guilty of comparing myself to those who have more.
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Now that I'm aware of the problem, what am I doing about it?
**We'll continue with what we're doing (rice & beans on Mondays, keeping our kids involved in the lives of our Compassion kids, having the kids help us select toys for our church's Adopt A Family, etc)
**We're going to use the Global Family Kit when it arrives with my pre-ordered copy of Raising Grateful Kids
**We're going to use the Compassion curriculum Step Into My Shoes that we ordered in November, but haven't touched during the busyness of the past few weeks.
**I am going to continue to read and re-read Raising Grateful Kids
**I am going to continue to pray God shows me my own entitlement and help me root it out
How are you fighting entitlement in your family?
Want more ideas of how others are battling entitlement and pointing their families to gratitude? My fellow bloggers from the Raising Grateful Kids In An Entitled World launch team are participating in a blog hop today!Inspiring an Attitude of Gratitude - by Alison
Raising Grateful Kids - by amanda
Why You Can't Buy Gratitude At The Dollar Store - by Andrea
Missing - Gratefulness in our home - by AngeChoosing Gratitude - by Angela
Gratefullness - by chaley
5 Steps to Gratitude-Fille Family - by Christa
Practicing Grateful Parenting - by Dana
Sing a Song - by Hannah
Cultivating gratitude in our family - by Jamie
Gratefulness In Our Home - by Jana
Gratefulness In Our Home - by Jana
Let It Begin With Me - by Jen
Choosing Gratefulness - by Jennifer
Raising Grateful Kids in an Entitled World - The Book - by jeri
Eradicating Entitlement - What are you rooted in? - by Jessica
Gratefulness in our home - by Kate
The Problem With Entitlement is that it begins with us - by Katelyn
7 Unusual Ways I Know How to Be Grateful - by Kathryn
Raising Grateful Kids - by Keri
How My Children Remind Me to Pray with Gratitude - by Kishona Grateful - by Kristy
Entitlement: The Ugly Truth of a Beautiful Lie - by Leigha
The Most Important Thing You Can Do To Raise Grateful Kids - by Lindsey
Dear Son: How Do I Teach You To Be Grateful Without Guilt? - by Marie Osborne
Gratitude, A Practical Definition - by Mia
Cultivating Gratitude in Our Home - by Nancy
Learning Gratitude through Chronic Illness - by Rachel
Being Grateful - by Rebecca
I've Found Something I Can't Live Without - by Sarah
The Power of Naming our Gifts - by Sarah
Outfitted - by Sarah Jo
Growing Gratitude in our Family - by Sondra
Teaching Gratefulness - by Stephanie
How Grateful Looks From Here - by Alison
Fighting Entitlement in Children and All of us - by Leah
Entitlement Problem - by Karrie
Grateful Today - by Krystal
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