Thankful!

-
This Thanksgiving, I'm thankful to have Tim's parents from Wyoming visiting with us for several days. Unfortunately, we don't get to see them often, since we live so far apart, but I'm glad they are here now. I found some ideas to promote thankfulness that I wanted to share. These ideas are (mostly) taken from a book by Lynn Bowen Walker called Queen of the Castle.

o Find Bible verses that focus on praise and promises from Jesus. Write the verses on small slips of paper, roll them into tiny scrolls, and insert them into homemade rolls before baking. At Thanksgiving dinner, have each person break into the roll and read his "thankfulness fortune" out loud before the blessing. (Paper with ink on it inside a dinner roll works just fine - I've tried it!)

o Take Thanksgiving guests one at a time into another room, ask them what they're thankful for, and tape-record or video their responses. Play back the tape/video for everyone between dinner and dessert.

o Read aloud a favorite psalm before dinner.

o Let your children make homemade place cards for your guests. On each card, have your children include something about that person for which they are thankful.
"Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise. Be thankful to Him, and bless His name. For the Lord is good; His mercy is everlasting, and His truth endures to all generations." -Psalm 100:1-5

Comments

  1. AnonymousNovember 30, 2008

    The photo of Ava smelling the rose looks like it was taken by a professional photographer. Actually, I don't think 99 out of every 100 professional photographers could have done so well. Excellent job. And it is so very, very precious.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Thanks for reading! You are welcome to leave your thoughts...

Popular posts from this blog

We Are Doing So Much More

-
Image
While being a stay-at-home mom has its own kind of freedom, which I value and enjoy, it is also a position that completely exhausts my mind and body. Why is it that I had more energy after an 8 hour day at the office than I now have at home by lunchtime? Part of it is because it takes a huge amount of mental energy to hear all those voices all over the house all day long, while still tuning in to what they are saying and processing how you can appropriately respond or solve the problem at hand. Part of it is because running on three bites of cold dinner isn’t exactly a balanced diet, and part of it is that the weekend is no more relaxing than the middle of the week. Most of it, though, is because loving the people in our lives requires more continuous pouring out of ourselves and all our resources than making money at any job. We simply have a lot of heart and a lot of hope that we are gladly and lovingly handing out by the bucket loads all day, every day.  Whether you are with y...
Read more

Listen, Obey, and Be So Glad You Did!

-
Image
Several times on the road, while texting or checking a map or viewing an email, I have noticed how gradually irresponsible I have become about using my phone while driving. It's also frightening how invincible I feel while doing it. I have known that I needed to be more careful, but I just pushed away the idea that I could be in an accident and kill my own children or someone else or myself. That wasn't very likely to happen, right? So, I continued being, well,  stupid. About two weeks ago, out of the clear blue I suddenly felt like the Lord was speaking to me. Plain as day and as unexpected as snow in July, I had the thought, "Don't be busy on your phone while you're driving." I knew it was the Holy Spirit. Don't worry. This photo was made while the car was sitting still. Ha! :) While this prompting from the Lord to not be distracted on my phone while driving was surprising at that moment, I immediately felt the importance of it, and I thanked Go...
Read more

Encouragement

-
Image
Encouragement. We love to get it. But how are we about giving it? We often wait for a holiday or a crisis or even death before we bring encouragement and thoughtfulness to others' lives. We also overlook the people who seem to be "doing good" and assume that they don't need encouragement. This week, let's throw those mentalities out the window and focus on being an encouragement right now to people who won't be expecting it. I would like to challenge you to take a few minutes each day for one week to encourage people in your life. Think of this walk-through as an exercise that will bless you and benefit many people whom you care about. Are you with me? Let's surprise some people with some encouragement! "I thank my God every time I remember you." - Philippians 1:3 Day 1:   Today, think of someone who you have been intending to drop a line for a while, but just haven't gotten around to it. Go ahead and do it today. Day 2:   Choose a person...
Read more