Ramblings on Gratitude

As I was driving home from work tonight, I started to think about gratitude. It's this weird thing I do, I imagine that I'm giving a talk in church and pick a topic then go with it. And tonight was gratitude. It actually started out as prayer. Then I thought about how often I use prayer to ask for something, vs give thanks for something. To my distress I realized that the former, and not the latter is what motivates me most.
I decided that I love to hear children's prayers. They are so sweet and sincere and heartfelt. Little children also are usually really good about saying their thank you's before their please's. That's how I taught Devon. He would fold his little arms and say Thank you.....daddy...princess...bandie....cars...mater...toys...mommy...daddy..turtles, then he would look up at me and I would fill in the please's- like please...bless our family...help us make good choices...help us be nice to our friends...bless our bodies with strength and health...help us to play nice...etc. If I went on too long with the please's Devon would get tired and say "Jeese Chrise..men" and unfold his little arms. Looking back on those experiences really made me think...he got the important part in, thanking Heavenly Father for all the wonderful things in our lives (even if it's toys and dogs). And if I got too long winded asking for things, he let me know in his own way.
I also remember taking walks with Devon. He was constantly stopping to smell the flowers...Literally! He would bend down and smell any plant growing, even grass...then tell me, yuck, or pretty. When a plant was deemed pretty, we would say thank you Heavenly Father for such a nice plant. Sometimes I wouldn't be paying enough attention and I swear I heard him say thank you a few times on our walks when he didn't point things out to me.
What an example children can set for their parents-who, ironically, should be an example to them. I think that if more of us had an attitude of gratitude more of the time then we would all be much better off. And if we spend less time on our please's and more time on thank you's then I think that we will find that we have more to be thankful for, and less we need to ask for.
Now I may be the only one this hasn't occurred to yet, and you all may be smiling indulgently at me right now, but at 5am, it's a pretty profound thought for me!