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FAMILY VALUES Less Than Thankful BY ELAINE STONE "W hat if they don't gel? I want his teacher to "get" his active personality! I'm concerned he'll be misunderstood," a young mother voiced of her son's eventual school experience. Concern about potential difficulties strikes a common chord in all of us. Parents especially wish to place a bubble of perfection around children. Love for them naturally protects and aims to keep them from harm or hardship. Even though, we know, life is never perfect and everyone faces trials. Perhaps this month of thanksgiving has found you in challenging places. Maybe you are finding it hard to be thankful; adversity has landed on your doorstep and welcomed itself inside. Perchance, you are less than thankful. Be encouraged; it happens to all who have ever lived. You are not alone in finding life difficult. Understandably, these places bring stress, discomfort and pain. Some would argue, if the challenges never came we would never grow stronger. Just as a challenging hill builds a runner's leg muscles, so life challenges strengthen and grow internal fortitude. Many hold that thankfulness in adversity is a powerful antidote to the trial. Sarah Ban Breathnach, in Simple Abundance, says, "If you give thanks for five gifts every day, in two months you will look at life differently." Ann Voskamp, in One Thousand Gifts (A Dare to Live Fully Where You Are), recounts writing down one thousand things she was thankful for, becoming a vehicle of healing in her tragic life. 24 Fredericksburg Parent and Family • November 2013