Thankfulness

                                                                 Zones of Regulation

                                                     
                                                                      Thankfulness

In my behaviour recovery provision, we have been using the zones of regulation to help children identify and deal with their emotions. Recently, one of the children asked if we could add another word, saying, "Can we add 'thankful'? I want to thank all the teachers for helping me." I was delighted that a) he was thankful and b) he was engaged enough to want to adapt the resource. It also got me thinking about thankfulness in my own life.

The Bible both instructs us to be thankful and gives us many good reasons to do so. In Psalm 100, it says, 'Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise. Be thankful to Him and bless His name.' Then there are the many things we can thank God for, from Jesus' sacrifice to the everyday things that remind us God loves us and is looking out for us.

As writers, we have a great opportunity to show thankfulness through our characters. Most of our protagonists wouldn't achieve their ends without the help of other characters supporting them, for a start. Then there's thankfulness for provision. If we are thankful for the ways in which God meets our needs, this attitude will naturally spill over into our writing. This could be as varied as gratitude for divine intervention, as in Philip S. Davies' 'Destiny' trilogy or Wendy H. Jones' DI Shona McKenzie's being thankful for a breakthrough in a case. One of my favourite novels, The Girl with all the Gifts, by M. R. Carey, is basically a big 'thank you' to his favourite teacher.

Over the years, I've given testimony a number of times in church and I hope this has encouraged others to be thankful as well. However, I don't think sharing an attitude of thankfulness is just restricted to the big things, like a new house or an exciting job opportunity. The many things we see God do everyday are just as important. If we display thankfulness on a regular basis, so will our characters and that's just another way of witnessing.

What are you thankful for? Right now, I'm thankful for a young boy who reminded me of the importance of saying aloud what I'm often thinking.



Rebecca Seaton mostly writes fantasy but would love to write a crime novel one day if she could just pin down a coherent plot. She manages a behaviour recovery provision for primary children and is on the advisory panel for Pen to Print, a Barking and Dagenham-based initiative for supporting emerging writers.