I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving this week! I’m thankful for YOU! Here’s a fun activity I posted about last Thanksgiving. Enjoy!
1. Create a massive turkey together. We used “Art for Kids Hub” tutorial to draw it.
2. At the top, write, “Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; His love endures forever.” (Psalm 118:29). Then tape it to the wall.
3. When you walk past the turkey, write or draw something you’re thankful for.
Share this story from Luke 17 with your kiddos to show how giving thanks is close to the heart of Jesus:
On Jesus’ way to Jerusalem, there were ten really sick men who no one would come close to. They stood at a distance and loudly asked Jesus to heal them. Jesus walked right up to them and healed every one of them.
When ONE of the men saw he was healed, he praised God loudly, threw himself at Jesus’ feet, and thanked him. Jesus asked, “Were not all ten healed? Where are the other nine? Has no one returned to give praise to God except this foreigner? Then he said to the man, “Rise and go; your faith has made you well.”
Let’s be the one who also “comes back” to give thanks to the Lord. Happy Thanksgiving!
Failure is one of those things we wish we could avoid. But as we all know, things don’t always work out as planned.
It can be tough to talk about our failures with our kids – when things didn’t turn out as we had hoped, but at some point or another, they will experience failure too. It’s so good for them to see how to handle it by our example.
My kids saw this first-hand with me yesterday. Something I had hoped would work out didn’t. I decided to share it with them. They saw a few tears and my son actually cried with me for a moment. His compassion melted my heart. But, then I told him that it was okay. I told him I had prayed about it so I could trust the Lord with it. Then we prayed together.
What an opportunity to show our kids that even in our pain, we can trust the Lord.
That even when things don’t line up as we had hoped, we can rejoice in the Lord.
That even when things don’t fall into the place we wanted them to, God is still God.
We can show our kids that we have a choice to praise him through it. That with God, there is always hope and anything is possible.
I love this line in Katie Davis Majors’ book, Daring to Hope:
“When the ministry feels stagnant and there is no astonishing growth to show for long hours of hard work, on days I don’t receive extraordinary answers to prayer, He is still glorified in my faithful pursuit of Him.”
Being faithful brings the Lord joy – not necessarily achieving goal after goal, but the continual pursuit of him and what burdens his and our hearts – one moment at a time.
It’s in the faithful seeking His kingdom comes.
“Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.” 1 Corinthians 15:58
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith.” Hebrews 12:1-2
Linsey Driskill 