What if 5 minutes could completely shift your perspective from overwhelm to peace? In this episode, we're diving into powerful gratitude examples from history and my own life that prove thanksgiving isn't just feel-good advice—it actually changes your brain, your home atmosphere, and your children's mental health.

From Abraham Lincoln declaring Thanksgiving during the Civil War to Corrie ten Boom thanking God for fleas in a concentration camp, you'll discover how gratitude transforms even the hardest circumstances into blessings.

In this episode:

✅2 practical activities you can do to go from complaining to gratitude

✅3 real gratitude examples that prove thankfulness changes everything

✅The 5-minute kitchen table practice that pulled me out of a breakdown and into peace

✅Scientific proof that gratitude increases joy, decreases anxiety, and improves sleep

✅How to raise grateful kids who are more satisfied, happier, and mentally healthier

✅Daily thankfulness practices you can start today to shift your family's atmosphere from complaining to contentment

Ready to transform your home with thankfulness? Grab the free 30 Days of Gratitude Challenge mentioned in this episode and join hundreds of moms starting November 1st!

Show Notes

It's Tuesday morning. You get up, you get breakfast ready, and your kids come in complaining, complaining, complaining. All of a sudden, someone spilled their milk, and the phone is buzzing, and before you realize it, you are mentally listing everything that's wrong.

I'm going to share a way to flip the switch in your head and get back into a place of peace, a place of gratitude. Today, we are talking about changing complaining to thankfulness, to gratitude. I'm going to be giving you several gratitude examples along the way.

Let's start with Abraham Lincoln. Back in 1863, the war between the states was tearing America apart. Families were divided, thousands were dying, no one knew what the future held. And President Lincoln declared a National Day of Thanksgiving.

He knew that the attitude of thanksgiving could actually change our country. He wrote, "Year filled with blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies, gracious gifts of Most High God." He was looking to God to say, even though everything around us is falling apart, we are gonna look up, and we are going to say thank you to God.

So when everything in your life feels chaotic, you can still choose to focus on God's goodness.

Several years ago, I was having a mental-emotional breakdown. In our house, I was walking back and forth, just reeling out in my head all the things I wanted to tell all the people that were giving me a hard time.

And all of a sudden, I was like, stop, Kerry. Just stop. I went to the kitchen table, I just grabbed a piece of regular notebook paper, and I started writing down anything I could think of to be thankful for. It could have been a blue sky outside, a hot cup of coffee, I don't know. But I went and just wrote everything down.

Got all the way down the list, and even got to the top, and started a second column. Almost to the bottom, I quit thinking about the things that God had given me, things to be thankful for, and I started to write down things about God. I started to praise Him for who He was in my life.

By the time I finished that list, peace came over me. There was joy in my heart, because I knew that God was taking care of me, and it really didn't matter about all the craziness.

Maybe your marriage is falling apart. Maybe you're rejected by your friends, or your mother-in-law's giving you a hard time. Maybe you're just totally overwhelmed, because you got 5 kids under the age of 7, and you're trying to homeschool a few of them.

That is the enemy attacking you, and you can change that overwhelmed, rejected attitude to something positive. You need to realize that the negative voice and all those bad things is not yours. It is the enemy attack. He is trying to get you to think about you, your circumstances, instead of God and trusting in a faithful God.

It only took me about 5 minutes, my perspective changed, and my heart and soul changed as well. My self-pity changed to praising God for His faithfulness, His character, and His provision that's always there.

I've been keeping a gratitude journal since about 2010 or 2011. This is actually my second gratitude journal. I actually hit 10,000 items earlier this year, and I know that keeping that journal changes the way I think.

It's not just God saying this, which is all that really matters, but there is scientific evidence that gratitude and thankfulness changes the way we think. Research shows that gratitude increases our joy and our contentment. It decreases our anxiety and our depression. It even helps you sleep better and gives you a stronger immune system.

If you are stressed out, I highly recommend that every day, you start a gratitude journal.

Let's talk about Corrie ten Boom in the middle of World War II. Her family housed Jews up in the attic, and eventually they got caught. Corrie and her sister Betsy were sent to Ravensbrook, one of the worst concentration camps in World War II.

The barracks were overcrowded, they were cold, and there were fleas everywhere. Her sister insisted, we have got to thank God for everything, even the fleas. Well, Corrie thought she had lost her mind. Seriously? You want me to say thank you for fleas?

Let me tell you, those fleas were a blessing from God. They discovered that those fleas kept the guards away and gave Corrie and Betsy time to share Jesus, to share things about the Bible, to have prayer meetings in their little barracks, without any interruption. Those guards didn't want you talking about God, but they were staying far away from the fleas.

Betsy knew something: We can thank God for even the hard times.

It's hard to say thank you that someone rejected me, or thank you that I have a child that's not walking with God. You're not thanking Him for that, but we can say, God, thank you for your faithfulness in the midst of this situation.

The things that we complain about the most are sometimes blessings in disguise. God uses anything for our good. Over 9 years ago, my husband left, and I would never wish this on anyone. It has been the hardest thing I have ever walked through in my life.

But I remember about 2 years ago, I was sitting with my dad, and I said, Dad, I would never wish this on anyone, but I wouldn't trade it for the world. I am closer to God than I have ever been.

That rejection, that hard time, the suffering, the trials that I continue to walk through—when you change your attitude to gratitude, it can sometimes become a blessing, and it is a true blessing.

What about my kids? My kids were complaining, everything's falling apart. If you can raise grateful kids, then they will be more satisfied with their life, they will have happier emotions, and they will actually have better mental health.

The key is you, Mom. When you are more grateful, your children will express more gratitude. Steve and I said thank you to our kids all the time, and we told our kids to say thank you when they're young. Now, as they grew up, they just naturally said it.

I've had parents say, Hunter or Gentry or Ashley, they're the only ones that said thank you for the meal when they came over. That was because we modeled it, and it became a part of who they are in their mind and in their heart.

It's not just changing their attitude for today, it's modeling a life skill for children for the rest of their lives.

When you are thankful for things, you activate dopamine. Dopamine is that happiness neurotransmitter. As we are grateful, it will happen to us, and as we model it for our kids, it will happen to the kids.

Let's face it, it is biblical as well. 1 Thessalonians 5:18 says, "In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God." It is not an option. God's will is for you and me to give thanks.

Teaching gratitude to our kids moves them from being entitled to a heart focused on Jesus.

George Washington Carver grew up born into slavery in 1864. He was orphaned as an infant, he had a chronic illness, he was denied an education, and yet he grew up to be a celebrated scientist and inventor.

He had a daily practice. He would walk in the woods at dawn, and he would look for little bitty things in the woods to say thank you to God. He said, "I love to think of nature as an unlimited broadcasting station through which God speaks."

When I go for a walk and I hear the birds sing, I'm like, oh, thank you, God. When I walk outside and see a beautiful sunset or sunrise, thank you, God. When I see green leaves on the tree, thank you, God.

Do you make it a practice to say thank you all day long? Gratitude in the simple things leads to extraordinary discoveries.

Listen, if you're multitasking, come back to me. Gratitude does not require perfect circumstances. It's a choice that opens our eyes to the possibilities of what is out there.

I suggest daily thank God for at least one thing in your life, or your family, or your kids. Your family and kids should start to participate. Model your attitude of gratitude, and let them see that you keep a gratitude journal. Rest in God—He is always in control, no matter what your circumstances are.

Find something that you already do every day. Like, we ate meals together. So maybe you keep all the gratitude challenges at the meal table, and after breakfast, lunch, or dinner, everyone writes one thing down that they are thankful for.

Maybe it's during your morning time, basket time, whatever that family time is. It only takes—it didn't even take 5 minutes sometimes. Each person can share what they're thankful for, and you can write that down.

With preschoolers, you can use prompts, and they can just tell it to you, you can write it down. Maybe if they're able to draw a picture, they just keep a little notebook of everything that they're thankful for. As they get older, they can actually write words.

With older kids, I would encourage them to write at least 3 things daily. That changes the neurons in your head and the way you think, because you are changing from negative, complaining thinking to positive, thankful thinking.

Choose one Bible verse about thanksgiving and practice it all of November. You could use 1 Thessalonians 5:18, "In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God." Simple.

Practice it at the dinner table every single night. Say it together, let them take turns saying it, whatever the verse is. This will anchor your gratitude practice, your gratitude actions in God's Word.

It also teaches our kids to focus on Jesus and what He's doing, not just positive thinking. This isn't all about positive thinking. This is about following God, because we know that Jesus and the Holy Spirit is what can change what's inside.

Don't wait for crisis, like I did that time, to start practicing gratitude. Start it right now. You don't need perfect circumstances, you just need to start!

Go get the free 30 Days of Gratitude Challenge. We're gonna start as a group on November 1st. You can start whenever you would like. You'll get free printables for the whole family, daily blog posts—I have 30 blog posts coming out in November. Some of them are crafts, some of them are activities, some of them are about the history of Thanksgiving, some of them are about being thankful in hard times.

This is a proven strategy to shift your family's atmosphere, home atmosphere, and your kids' minds, and yours. You'll have a community of moms doing this together as well.

Sign up now at HowToHomeschoolMyChild.com/gratitudechallenge. Choose gratitude together this November. Show your kids your thankful heart, and how it changes everything, and you can create a peaceful home that you deserve.