Home School Heartbeat Radio Program

Mike Farris:
Ann, homeschooling parents can get discouraged as they try to juggle daily life. Both of us can relate to that. How can practicing thankfulness encourage them?

Ann Voskamp:
Actually, Mike, we had a university study happen through my blog, AnnVoskamp.com, and they found parents that would go ahead and participate in this study, and each of the parents were asked to compile a list of 10 things that they were grateful for. And when the parents then experienced moments of stress throughout the day related to parenting, they were to reset their thinking by verbally expressing gratitude. And by the end of those 40 days, the results of the study indicated that there was a startling 53.2% decrease in stress. Not only did the stress decrease significantly, but the more the parents expressed gratitude, the less stress they actually experienced. So when God goes and asks us to “give thanks in all things, for this is His will for us,” what He’s actually asking us to do is, thankfulness is a proven stress intervention for parents. So going ahead in the midst of the stressful circumstances and giving thanks in that moment—you can’t simultaneously feel stress and gratitude at the same time. So, as a parent, to go ahead and start to give thanks to God resets the whole family.

Mike:
Ann, I give thanks that you’ve shared that with us. I’m Mike Farris.