THANKFULNESS and GRATITUDE – what’s the difference, really? 

I ran a quick internet search on gratitude, thankfulness, and the differences between them.

A clear and simple definition for gratitude that stood out to me was from kidshealth.com and it stated:

“when you feel thankful for the good things in your life.”

Other references explained how gratitude is a deeper, more permanent state of being, while thankfulness is a response to an event, and more situational. 

Over the years, I have accrued an extensive list of things for which I am thankful.

How blessed am I that I can even possess such a list to reflect on when needed.

I’m thankful for this military life and the endless adventures it has brought to me – including traveling to foreign countries, experiencing a variety of cultures in and outside of the U.S., and meeting some of the most wonderful people ever!

I’m thankful for military spouse friends who brought me meals after I had babies or helped with childcare when my husband was deployed because my extended family couldn’t be there.

I’m thankful for all the kind neighbors we have had over the years. I’m so very thankful for my health, and for my family’s health too. 

My gratitude, however, certainly has been cemented into my being and will remain with me always.

It was instilled during high school and college, when I had the most wonderful opportunities to serve on mission trips – and they forever changed my outlook on life. 

My teams journeyed to shack villages in Mexico, and laid cement on the dirt floors of the families’ tiny homes, attempting to keep things a little more comfortable and cleaner for them.

Their unstable huts with tin roofs consisted of maybe two sections for living and cooking and housed the entire family. 

The families sometimes offered our teams what little food they had left over as a gesture of gratitude.

We completed yardwork at Mexican orphanages, swathed their buildings with fresh coats of paint, and played with the children who were so desperate for love and attention.

They most enjoyed brushing and braiding our hair because their hair had to be shaved since headlice was such a rampant problem. 

I ministered in deaf schools in Jamaica when their buildings were destroyed from a hurricane.

Deaf students there were often treated as outcasts because their families could not provide for them.

Going away to boarding school offered these precious students a community where they were wanted, it provided them with an education, and taught them skills to make a living and contribute to society.

They were so grateful we could help keep their school going. 

As I have been thinking about this season of thankfulness, and managing my young children’s sometimes ungrateful attitudes, I have been burdened to impress on them how many good things they have in life.

Two loving parents, a comfortable home, ample food, and even a few of their own toys are already more than what many children have in this world.

If only my children could truly understand. 

One of the most impactful ministries my children and I have participated in each year is Samaritan’s Purse Operation Christmas Child program.

If you are unfamiliar with this, it’s a massive outreach that delivers shoeboxes filled with necessities and toys and brings them to underprivileged children in over 170 countries and territories. I filled shoeboxes and brought them to Samaritan’s Purse drop-off locations as a young, single woman, and I have continued almost every single year since.

When my children were tiny, we’d put together one or two boxes as a family. Now that they’re a bit older, each of my children has put together their own box for another child their same age.

Though the youngest has been a little confused the past couple of years and has wanted to keep the toys for himself, the children truly have had such big hearts as they carefully choose the items they’ll put in their shoeboxes for another child in need. We have then been able to track the boxes and discover the country in which they landed! 

One of my children recently read a story for school called Beatrice’s Goat in which she learned of a family in Africa who received a pregnant goat as a gift. We read how the family could sell the baby goat and sell the mama goat’s milk, and use the money to go to school and to buy necessities for their family to live a better life.

Samaritan’s Purse also has a program which allows families like us to contribute towards goats, chickens, a cow and more for families in need overseas. 

I am grateful my eyes have been opened to challenging situations beyond my own, and that I have had the opportunities to serve others in unique ways.

It has forced me to be careful about my food waste, to think through my purchases and use my money wisely, to be content with what I have, and most of all, to teach and encourage my children to look through the same lens.

On days we think we have it so bad, we covet what others have, or we compare to something bigger and better, I think about the families who gave up their food for me, I think about the orphans who would have been excited to grow their hair long, and I think of the children in so many countries who are elated to receive only one shoebox for Christmas. 

We are lucky that we are so privileged in this country. I am fully blessed, even on my worst day.

Reflecting on these things completely fills me with gratitude this season. Gratitude: forever thankful for the good things in life! 

*To read more LaVaughn’s work, check out her M:M Author Page.

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