Becoming Grateful Day 30: Doing Chores for Others

Thinking back on all the things we have done this month to increase our gratitude, we hope you've become more grateful in some way.  Today is the last day of November, and the last day for our little series, but becoming grateful doesn't stop here.  When we become something, it is a part of us and something we are always in the process of.  You don't arrive at a finish line for gratitude and say "Well, I made it. I'm grateful now."  Each of us will spend all our lives becoming grateful.  Hopefully each day we remember to give thanks and love a little more.  I hope that this month has prepared you for today's idea:

Chores!

How is doing a CHORE going to help you feel gratitude?  At my house chores are never really done and sometimes there's an uneven balance of who does them.  We all enjoy having a clean home, organized closets, crumb free cars, and so forth, but sometimes the doing just doesn't get done all the way all the time; life happens.  Do you feel like the one on the Right or the Left?  Haha, I freely admit I have felt like both ladies sometimes.

                                    

or

But do you see the little boy on the left?  How happy is that kid?  He's not complaining.  He's helping.  Maybe he helps all the time, or maybe this is just a one time thing.  Okay, he's just a cartoon, but imagine all the possibilities here.

 And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.

Matthew 25:40

When we serve others, we show love for them and we feel love for them.  When we feel this love, we also feel gratitude for them.  In my house there are some chores that are done by certain family members by default:  I usually (not always) wash laundry, my husband usually takes out the trash and our kids are learning how to do their share of picking up their toys and so on.

Someone I know stayed up late ironing her son's shirts the night before he left to go on a mission.  At first when I heard this, I thought "psh, that boy needs to learn to iron his own clothes!"  Later I thought, "I think that mom loves her son and wanted to serve him every moment she could while she could."  What a difference in gratitude our attitude makes.  

When I think about serving someone in this way, I think what a blessing it could be to them.  We can feel sympathy and love by helping our family members with things that might be normal mundane chores.  We will feel grateful to them that they do it all the time.  We will feel grateful for the hard work and dedication it takes to keep things organized and clean.  We will feel good that we gave them a break because they might be just a little tired from all the other things in life.  

We can feel grateful by saying "thanks Dad for taking out the garbage," but it is by doing that we grow the most.  So instead of saying thanks, give thanks.  Show you love someone and are are grateful to them by doing something for them.  We really do feel gratitude when we serve others.  I know that when we choose the simple, regular ol' chores to serve by, that we'll find we are more grateful than we thought we were at the beginning.  Happy cleaning Saturday!  

Happy day of Gratitude!  We hope you Become Grateful every day!!!