Every year on the 1st of November, I always put a large piece of paper on the refrigerator with the words, “Thank you God for” at the top. Family members were encouraged to regularly write down something they were thankful for. This was a tradition for many years in our home. We enjoyed writing our own and reading what the rest of the family had written.
Since we are all separated now, we set up a Thanksgiving GroupMe account for group messages just for our family. We number each thank you and last year we got up to 232 thank you’s.
If you are separated from your family, you might consider the same thing. We love reading what our children are thankful for and seeing them interact with each other on this account.
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.”