With A Thankful Heart That Is Wide Awake

I’ve been doing something new recently that I think every parent should try to incorporate into their lives.

In a moment of conversation or play or even just a mundane incident like sitting at the table together for dinner, I will look at my children and delight in their existence.

Granted, it’s much easier to do this in easy moments like those listed above. It’s far more difficult to marvel with joy at the creation of your child when he is throwing a tantrum because his siblings arrived at the car door before him and he wasn’t ready to race. Or when you’re begging your daughter to take a bite of one noodle and she is theatrically exercising her gag reflex.

But many times my children are deserving of pure delight, and most times I have failed to revel in that. I don’t know if it’s Christmastime or something else, but I have noticed the sweet moments far more often in recent weeks and even the calm, everyday moments have seemed to be more precious to me recently.

A week before Christmas, we went to my Mom’s house and all four of our children sat in rapt attention watching A Muppet Christmas Carol—the best version of the Dickens classic (I will fight you and even die on a hill on this point if I have to).

There is a line in the closing song that I have sung hundreds of times in my Michael Caine impression over the years, but upon this viewing it stood out to me and made me think about this new intentionality I’ve been experiencing with my children.

A thankful heart that is wide awake. What a deep line to be sung by an Oscar-winning actor surrounded by felt puppets with pingpong ball eyes.

But what does it mean? Here’s what I think.

It’s one thing to be grateful once in a while, or even frequently. It’s another thing to be wide awake in your gratitude—noticing things in real time and being grateful for something in the same moment in which you are experiencing it. If you were truly wide awake, you would be grateful for the not-so-great things in real time as well.

But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Start with the easier stuff.

Have there ever been moments (like those I described above with my kids) where you have found yourself just basking in the awesomeness of what you are experiencing? You had a thankful heart that was wide awake.

Did you ever smell the first whiff of spring air before its even fully spring weather or see a beautiful sunset that turns only the tops of all adjacent trees a magnificent orange color and marvel that God had created all of this just for us? You were wide awake in your thankfulness.

Have you ever been spending time with someone and just thought to yourself, “Gosh, I really enjoy this person’s company and I’m glad they’re in my life”? Thankful heart. Wide awake. Can’t lose.

The hard part is rousing our thankful heart from its slumber. Rather than simply looking back in gratitude, I challenge you (and myself) to look around with gratitude. Chances are you won’t be visited by three Muppets, so you’ll have to force yourself to do it.

But once you start down this road, you’ll probably find yourself noticing a lot of things to be thankful for. It might get overwhelming.

And suddenly you’ll find yourself tearing up in front of your kids when you’re just playing with them. (and they already saw you tear up about Muppet Tiny Tim’s potential death, so you better pull yourself together)

So here’s to more gratitude-in-real-time in 2025, with a thankful heart that is wide awake.