What I Learned From My 7-Year Old Niece About Being Grateful
To know me is to know that my niece, Dasia, is a huge part of my life and has been since the day she was born. I am the youngest in my family so I’ve never had someone I was responsible for helping to teach morals or life lessons. When she was younger I helped teach her to crawl and walk, along with her ABC’s and 123’s. Now that she’s growing into this amazing little girl with a dynamic personality, I’m finding that the teachings go beyond education.
Dasia is currently into collecting small figurines of the characters from the movie Sing. My mom and I have been ordering them each weekend after she has had a good week in school. Last weekend the shipment was delayed on one of the figurines she was expecting. It should have arrived on Wednesday but they updated the tracking with a new delivery date of Saturday. It was now early Saturday morning but the mail usually gets delivered in the afternoon. Dasia kept asking when the mail carrier was going to come, if the toy was going to get delivered, and was starting to get a little sad with the thought that it may not arrive that day.
I sat her down and told her she should be grateful for the toys that she already has. I then asked her did she know what grateful meant, to which she replied no. I explained to her that grateful means to be thankful for what you have. I told her instead of focusing on what she doesn’t have that she should focus on the things that she does have; be grateful for what’s right in front of her. I paused and quickly realized that I was sounding like one of those elders that I would talk about to my brother and cousins. You know, the ones that didn’t practice what they preached. The do as I say and not as I do kind. I realized that I too am sometimes guilty of not being appreciative of what is right there in front of me.
In trying to teach my niece a lesson, I learned a lesson. From here on out I made a promise to myself to always show gratitude for the things that I do have. I would love to start acknowledging daily at least one thing that I’m grateful for. So today I am grateful for my support system. I have a small group that is there for me whenever I need them. Whether it’s for advice, a shoulder to cry on, feedback on a business idea, to share excitement in my good news, or just for a good laugh. They know who they are and I am forever grateful to have them in my life. What are you grateful for?
