Wednesday, November 14, 2007
Making thankfulness a priority every day!
Thanksgiving is approaching us rather quickly...I think time speeds up as we get older! I have been busy making my menu and grocery list and thinking of ways to really make this time of year special for my family. Last year we cut out fall leaves in all different colors with questions on them. I got this idea from Alicia. I loved it! If you go to her November 2006 posts, you can see pictures and read about it. After we ate our meal we stayed around the table, while my girls spread the leaves out everywhere. We then all chose a leaf and read the question. We shared from our hearts the answers to these questions. We will be doing this again this year. I love hearing all the answers because we have 80 year olds and 2-4 year olds at our table! You just never know what will be said!!!
Some of the questions were:
What does thanksgiving mean to you?
What has been a truly special gift from God this year?
Why did the Pilgrims celebrate that first Thanksgiving and what did they have to be thankful for?
What has God blessed you with this year?
How has God provided for you in this past year?
What is your favorite song that speaks of giving thanks to God?
What are some of your favorite thanksgiving traditions?
What are you the most thankful for today?
One thing we have been doing during our family worship time this month is focusing on thankfulness...singing songs of thankfulness, plus, Mike has been reading scripture passages on being thankful. We are trying to focus on making it a way of life each and every day. Scripture is very clear that we are to be thankful. It is sinful to not be. Remember when I posted on contentment and thankfulness....when we are thankful, we can not be discontent. When I start feeling discontent with anything, I have made it a discipline to begin thanking the Lord for what He has done for me. The other night, our family talked about turning frustrations and discontent feelings into prayers of thanksgiving. It was refreshing to focus on being thankful. I must always be reminding myself to do this...as well as focus my children's hearts on this.
I love the ideas from family Life for thanksgiving. You can go here and read how the Rainey family has developed traditions for Thanksgiving. I love their ideas as well. We purchased the audio book from them last year and have begun the tradition of listening to it each year. It is called: *Thanksgiving A Time to Remember*. It tells of the first thanksgiving and really makes an impact.
As much as I love this time of year, I must think about the greatest reason for our thankfulness and remember this all year long! God sending His Son to save us while we were His enemies, helpless, and sinners. What a gracious God that would choose any of us as His children.
Another Keith Getty song: You can hear part of it here.
My heart is filled with thankfulness
To Him who bore my pain;
Who plumbed the depths of my disgrace
And gave me life again;
Who crushed my curse of sinfulness
And clothed me in His light
And wrote His law of righteousness
With pow'r upon my heart.
My heart is filled with thankfulness
To Him who walks beside;
Who floods my weaknesses with strengths
And causes fear to fly;
Whose ev'ry promise is enough
For ev'ry step I take,
Sustaining me with arms of love
And crowning me with grace.
My heart is filled with thankfulness
To him who reigns above,
Whose wisdom is my perfect peace,
Whose ev'ry thought is love.
For ev'ry day I have on earth
Is given by the King;
So I will give my life, my all,
To love and follow him.
I am a stay at home mother to 4. I am very blessed to have a godly husband who loves the Lord and his family. I welcome the days of much needed grace,the times of sweet victories,and the tears of trials,knowing it is all for God's glory. I want my lifesong to sing to Him,the author and finisher of my faith. Soli Deo Gloria--To the Glory of God alone.
11 Comments:
I love that leaf idea. We celebrate Thanksgiving in October here in Canada, but we should really celebrate it EVERY day. It's true, that when you're thankful, you can't be discontent. I struggle with that.
Thanks for the idea, Kim. I read Alicia's post about it, too. It sounds like such an easy way to make the day more meaningful. And I liked the way Alicia put it: one generation praising His works to another. Amen!
Hey friend! Sorry I haven't been around in awhile, but my blog life has taken a backseat and I don't like it because I miss my bloggy friends like YOU!
; )
I loved your leaf idea from last year.
I was just reading a magazine article about how to teach children gratitude. I think that is SO important. I hope I can do it! You are a great example.
Thanksgiving, A Time To Remember comes down off my library shelf every year around this time. I love that book! We also use a "Thanksliving" chest, its kind of the same concept as the Resurrection Eggs at Easter.
I really love the leaf idea. Thanks so much for sharing!
The LORD has really been convicting me about my lack of Thankfulness and contentment. I don't feel that I am a complaining ungrateful person, but am still lacking in these areas. He has been teaching me in unbelievable ways lately. He is teaching me to trust Him, that He does and will provide everything we need, not only for our physical needs, but everything we need for life and godliness as well (II Peter 1:3). He is amazing.
What a great post, Kim! I love how you intentionally turn frustrations and discontent into prayers of thankfullness. We really do need to be aware of this in our lives as Christians. A very good discipline to practice, that's for sure.
Love the idea of the leaves with questions on them too!
You have shared several great ideas here. Thanks so much! I love the idea of the leaves at Thanksgiving dinner. I'm also going to look into getting that book. As usual, you have inspired me to try some new things! :)
We have the FL "Time to Remember" too and love it! Bought it last year and I love the cds! I enjoyed reading about the leaf idea, too. A new one to try next year.
I still want to hear about some of the healthy eating things you said you wanted to share. Whenever you can. Talk to you soon!
I hadn't seen the leaf idea, how neat! We'll be camping again this year... surrounded by leaves! We must incorporate that. Thanks! I have found that a (truly) thankful heart keeps so many other sinful and destructive emotions at bay. God is so, so good.
Wonderful ideas! Blessings on you as God increases your family.
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