Thankful Moments

We are in a season of gratitude and many of us will be spending Thursday eating the traditional Thanksgiving meal with our friends and loved ones, and with this week comes an excellent opportunity to teach your children the importance of gratitude. After all, our blessings come from God and we should be thanking him daily for all the goodness in our life (II Cor 9:8-10, Phil 4:19, Jam 1: 17). Here are some practical ideas to show gratitude this week:

1) Start a gratitude journal: Our children’s ministry recently started a gratitude journal and it is  available in the hallway boat outside the 1st grade classroom. Anyone is welcome to write or draw a picture of something they are thankful for. Take time with your own family to create a    journal and list all the ways God has blessed you.

2) Go on a gratitude walk: Go hiking or take a walk in your neighborhood and list out things you are thankful for that you can see. God, thank you for our house, thank you for our neighbors, thank you for the changing leaves, etc.

3) Challenge your family to memorize Psalm 100: Have fun with this! Make it into a game, a chant, or a song. Let it be something you start dinner with each night starting with one verse and   adding another until you have memorized the entire passage.

4) Psalm 9:1 Race: See who can be the first person on Thanksgiving Day to recite Psalm 9:1 to   every family member that joins them for    Thanksgiving. Let the winner choose the first dessert.

5) Thankful Turkey: Make a drawing of a turkey (a hand-turkey will do) and write something you are thankful for on each feather. Keep adding feathers throughout the day as you come up with more reasons to be thankful.

Above all, be intentional about Thanksgiving. Enjoy the football, the parade, and the food, but also use this time to point your family to God. 

Psalm 9:1 “I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart; I will recount all of your wonderful deeds. “