The kind that circle back

11 ¶And it came to pass, as he went to Jerusalem, that he passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee.

 12 And as he entered into a certain village, there met him ten men that were ^alepers, which stood afar off:

 13 And they lifted up their voices, and said, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.

 14 And when he saw them, he said unto them, Go shew yourselves unto the ^apriests. And it came to pass, that, as they went, they were cleansed.

 15 And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, and with a loud voice glorified God,

 16 And fell down on his face at his feet, giving him ^athanks: and he was a Samaritan.

 17 And Jesus answering said, Were there not ten ^acleansed? but where are the ^bnine?

 18 There are not found that returned to give glory to God, save this stranger.

 19 And he said unto him, Arise, go thy way: thy faith hath made thee whole.

(Luke 17: 11-19)

I love this story.  It is one of my favorites and I hope it will be one that my children will grow to love, understand, and apply in their lives.  I have been gifted with a grateful heart.  I think it is because I grew up with a single mom.  Every month was a struggle to get by  and we didn't have a lot so every single thing I DID get, I was so grateful for!

I thought about gratitude while I was hanging up clean towels in my boy's bathroom today.  I saw this cute thing.  Our primary president gave it to Brady at his baptism.  CTR stands for Choose the Right.  I thought how grateful I was that he had this visual reminder every day to Choose the Right.  Then the thought occurred to me that I should let our primary president know how much I appreciated that towel.  So I sent her a text picture of it and told her how much I love that it is so cute and matches his bathroom shower curtain, and that she provided a reminder for him to make good choices.

Expressing gratitude is important.  Sometimes we don't realize just HOW important.  Years ago when Brent was sick, a Neurosurgeon at Baylor Dallas agreed to try a new type of shunt on Brent.  He was skeptical that it would help him much and it was risky because it required opening him up near his spine to place the shunt.  Brent DID get the surgery and it helped him enough that he was able to go back to work and provide for our family again.  We spent a Family Home Evening writing Dr Bidiwala thank you notes from each of us and coloring him pictures (for those who were too young to write).  I remember one of the thank you notes said something to the effect of , "Thank you Dr. Bidiwala for your willingness to try this surgery.  You have given me my Dad back.".  

The next time Brent went in for a follow up with Dr. Bidiwala, he mentioned that he had kind of decided not to do that surgery anymore.  It was just too risky considering the low number of positive outcomes.  That was   UNTIL he got the envelope from our family with all the notes to him.  He said he has kept them to remind him WHY he does what he does.  I am so grateful that we took the time to thank him.  It never occurred to me that other people would be blessed with access to the same surgery BECAUSE of it.

I had a chance to see that one of my kiddos also has a grateful heart this past weekend.  Reagan's phone pretty much died on Friday.  She was super upset because it happens to be out of warranty so she knew that if it couldn't be an easy fix at the Apple store, she was going to have to pay to replace it.  

We spent the better part of the afternoon at the Apple store waiting in line to talk to a "Genius" and get it fixed.  We were assigned a sweet girl named Brittany.  She could see how important it was to Reagan that her phone get fixed.  But after investigation she was sad to report to her that it couldn't be fixed by them.  I think she could see the tears welling up in Reagan's eyes.  She looked at her and said "let me check one thing in the back" and then disappeared for a few minutes with the phone.  

She came back and asked Reagan if she had dropped her phone lately and had the glass replaced? 

 Reagan said, "...well ,yes,  about 6 months ago".  

Brittany said, "I could tell that this glass wasn't the original so I did a little checking and the display (whatever that is) isn't working properly that they replaced it with at the repair shop you used."

Brittany suggested she take it back to them and tell them and see if they would replace it.

The repair shop we had used just happened to be at the mall too so we quickly did just that!

Low and behold they were quick to repair the problem free of charge and our girl was happy once again.  On the way out to the car, we were about to pass the Apple store once again.  

Reagan turned to me and asked if she could run in again and think Brittany for her help in getting her phone fixed.

It was pretty sweet to watch from a distance as Reagan ran up to Brittany and thanked her and gave her a hug.  I could tell it touched Brittany as well as the 6 or so Apple geniuses that witnessed Reagan's genuine appreciation.  

I want my children to be the kind that circle back and express gratitude.  

It looks like it might just be catching on.

If you would like to teach your children about the story of the ten lepers and gratitude, here is a great link with pictures.