How’s your thank you list going?  Regularly writing down what you are thankful for can increase your level of happiness by 25%.   I have always believed that an attitude of gratitude changes your disposition because of what Scripture indicates.  However, Thanks!: How the New Science of Gratitude Can Make You Happier offers scientific evidence of this and that a grateful spirit actually improves your health.   I haven’t read the book yet, but I am always thrilled when scientists discover the reality of what Scripture has always said.

Always help your children understand the holidays you celebrate.  Have fun telling the story of the first Thanksgiving and acting it out with Indian headbands and Pilgrim hats.

Click here for a coloring book you can download and print that gives a simple explanation of the first Thanksgiving.  Talk about each page as you color.

The following sites have patterns for pilgrim hats and Indian headbands:

http://crafts.kaboose.com/pilgrim-hat-for-girls.html

http://crafts.kaboose.com/pilgrim-hat-for-boys.html

http://www.iparty.com/projects/thanksgiving_native_american_headband.asp

Have fun!!

I am thankful for all of you who follow my blog and have a desire to train up your children according  to Scripture.   Thank you to family and friends who continue to encourage me to post.  Thanks to the Lord Jesus Christ for all things!!!!!!!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Use the Bible to make your children aware of people who thanked God.  The first Bible story that comes to mind that has to do with thanks is the story of the Ten Lepers in Luke 17:11-19.  Ten lepers came to Jesus and were healed, but only one came back to say thank you.  At Amazon.com you can buy an Arch book about this entitled He Remembered to Say Thank You.    Our children loved the Arch Books as they tell the Bible stories in rhyme and the pictures are very colorful. There are many Bible stories available in the Arch Series.

The story of Hannah (also available from Arch books) is an example of thankfulness as she earnestly prayed for a child and when God answered her prayer, she gave Him thanks. This story is found in 1 Samuel 1 and 2.

The Psalms are full of David’s thank yous.  And Paul talks often of his thankfulness for various things.

If you don’t have the books, read the stories in the Bible for yourself, and then tell them in your own words with expression.  Be creative and use visuals.  For example for the Ten Lepers you can make 10 paper dolls with dots all over them on one side and then flip them over  to reveal the spots are all gone when you talk about Jesus healing them.  Have all of them leave, and then one of them comes back to thank Jesus.

Take a walk around the house or outside and point out things you are thankful for.  Turn it into a prayer of thanks as you say “Thank you God for”  and name each thing.  You can also take pictures of these things and put them in a thank you box that you can decorate together.  Each night you can pull out a picture and thank God for it. You can include in your box pictures of family and friends to be thankful for.  Older children may want to draw pictures or make a thank you notebook.  These activities are for the whole family.  You never get too old to be thankful for the things and people around you.

Click on the link to hear a song you can use to sing your thank you’s as you walk. I apologize for the quality. . . it is from a 32 year old tape . . . but you can still get the tune and the idea.

13-we-are-glad-today

Click on this link somuch-scott to hear a fun, thankful song that the children love.   I couldn’t remember exactly how it went so I called our good friend and minister of music, Scott Eaton, and got him to sing it over the phone.  Start with your hands together and as you sing the song pull them further and further apart until your arms are wide open.  Bring your hands back together in a big clap before the last phrase.

You can sing this next song to  the tune of :”Frere Jacques” also known as “Are You Sleeping?”  Sing it with hands folded in prayer and head bowed:

We are thankful
We are thankful
Yes we are
Yes we are
Thankful for our food
Thankful for our family
Give God thanks
Give God thanks

This would be a good time to memorize Psalm 100 or any psalm of thanks.  If your child can’t read yet, try making a picture for the main words in the psalm to help in memorizing.

Psalm 100:1-5

Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all ye lands.

Serve the Lord with gladness:

Come before his presence with singing.

Know ye that the Lord he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves;

We are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.

Enter into his gates with thanksgiving,and into his courts with praise:

Be thankful unto him, and bless his name.

For the Lord is good; his mercy is everlasting;
and his truth endureth to all generations.

About the 1st of November, I always put a large piece of paper and tie a pen on the refrigerator with the words, “Thank you God for” at the top.  Family members are encouraged to regularly write down something they are thankful for.  This has been a tradition for many years in our home. We enjoy writing our own and reading what the rest of the family has written.

Writing down your blessings can really change your outlook.  As the old hymn by Johnson Oatman says, “Count your many blessings; name them one by one; and it will surprise you what the Lord has done.”

No matter what happens, always be thankful, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus. 1Thes. 5:18 (NLT)

A form of the word “thanks” occurs about 150 times in Scripture making it very evident that God values thankful hearts

Being thankful is a choice.  If it were not a choice, God wouldn’t be commanding us to be thankful.  The pilgrims chose to be thankful after their first year in America even though they experienced sickness, deaths, and various hardships. In 1863, in the midst of the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln chose to declare that “the last Thursday in November be a day of Thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father who dwells in the heavens.”

When we choose to be thankful, our spirits are lifted.  We can not be discouraged and thankful at the same time.  We can not teach our children to be thankful when we are ungrateful.  As in everything, we lead by example.

The next few days I will be sharing some ideas to help make Thanksgiving a thankful time with your children.

We had the best Fourth of July ever!!! Yes, we had food; yes, we had fireworks; yes we had watermelon. We had Wii games, bocce ball in the backyard, and conversation around the fire pit. There was the usual Daws family movie quoting and the constant playing of patriotic music and movies throughout the day. There were even a few non-mother-approved displays of pyrotechnics; however, I can’t complain because everyone did sit long enough for the reading of the “Declaration” and “The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere”. But none of these alone are what made it a spectacular 4th. It’s the fact that our entire family was at our house along with some of our favorite extended family.

Nothing can compare with family enjoying each other. What a gift from God!!! It is interesting that the author of the Declaration of Independence understood the importance of family. Thomas Jefferson once said, “The happiest moments of my life have been the few which I have passed at home in the bosom of my family.” I wonder if he had any idea that one day the celebration of what he had a part in would be a family fun-filled holiday.

As my heart rejoices over the day we had, it also hurts for those who couldn’t have that for whatever reason - the recent loss of a daughter, a father near death, discord in the family, or a family member in another country actually defending the right to have a fun-filled 4th.

The first institution God established was the family. No matter what your family situation, always remember - if God so valued the family, so should we. Your family is a gift of God to you, as you are to them.

I hope you will take the time to listen to the following song by Gary Dunham A Happy Family. It was in the top 10 Christian songs in 1981 so it is a little dated, but It has been special to our family through the years. Several years ago one of our children accidentally recorded over our only copy of the song, so you will hear him at the end, but you will get the message of the song

A Happy Family