Encouraging Thankful Hearts

Posted by Yvonne | 0 comments

I love Autumn! The cooler breezes and the lower humidity call me to long adventurous walks in the woods, culminating in hot chocolate or apple cider and yummy donuts with my children. I enjoy the memory making we create each year by going out into nature to snap our family portrait for Christmas cards, or the icky gooey time we spend scooping out the inside of a pumpkin so that we can carve the name of Jesus into it, shining His name into the darkness. I treasure each season…catching hold of the drops of grace rained down upon me, redeeming every lonely moment of my pre-Christian days. And I am reminded, to be thankful.
But how do I cultivate thankfulness in my children’s hearts during the holiday season?

With Christmas advertising starting up in October, children are often inundated with messages encouraging, “The Gimme’s.” In addition, many movies and television shows portray a “picture perfect,” holiday season complete with miraculously happy endings, perfectly browned turkeys and a room full of extravagant gifts. In other words, they aren’t very realistic and have the potential of creating unreasonable expectations. The first thing we chose to do as a young Christian family was to create a “Thanksgiving Tree.”

The evening we light our Jesus Pumpkin, usually a few days before Halloween, we come inside and begin our Thanksgiving Tree, a place to record blessings of gratitude during the Thanksgiving season.

Materials Needed for a Thanksgiving Tree:

• Butcher Paper or Poster Board
• Brown crayon or marker
• A glue stick
• A fine point marker or pencil
• About three sheets each of red, orange, and yellow construction paper cut into the shapes of leaves. (If you plan on keeping the leaves in a memory book, use acid free paper.)
• Your favorite Thanksgiving scripture

1. Draw a picture of a large tree. It can be as simple or elaborate as you wish.
2. Color the trunk brown with your crayon or marker.
3. Write your favorite verse of thanksgiving on your poster.
4. Hang on a wall or door.

Your Thanksgiving Tree is now ready to receive your blessings! Everyday, each member of the family will fill out a leaf with a blessing of thanksgiving and glue it to the tree.

In past years, I’ve seen:

Thank you for Mommy.
Thank you God, for the new car so that we’d have room for baby Grace.
Thank you for the ability to play the guitar so that I can make music for You.
Thank you for helping me understand Algebra.
Thank you for homeschooling.
Thank you Lord, for the nearly new clothes from the thrift store.
Thank you for Dad, who likes my music.
Thank you for our pet rats. They are cool!
Thank you God, for Jesus.
Thank you for big brothers.

The list goes on and on. By Thanksgiving Day each year, we have a tree filled with more than 100 leaves!

Our Thanksgiving Tree has been a blessing to this old mom’s heart for many seasons. It has helped us to focus on the important necessities of life: faith, family and fellowship. The Thanksgiving Tree nurtures a contented heart and often points us back to the author and perfector of our faith.

Secondly, we take a journey into a Thanksgiving Unit Study. Remembering the struggles and victories of the people on the Mayflower and at Plimouth Plantation provides a rivoting peek into what really mattered in 1621. We visit Plimouth Plantation, reviewing the story of their journey and faith as they overcame enormous obstacles. Or we might read Abraham Lincoln’s 1863 Thanksgiving Proclamation and ponder the faith of a nation in the midst of a civil war with all of it’s costly tragedies.

But beyond the obvious Thanksgiving unit study topics we choose to remember the sacrifices of others. We remember World War II when so many families were seperated from one another, yet took courage and fought the good fight, in faith. We ponder the American soldier, who continues to sacrifice for the protection of our great nation. Finally, we reflect on the personal stories of our family. How has God grown us? How has He provided for us? In what ways has He blessed us?
So practically, what does this look like? (Because offhand it sounds like it takes a lot of time, but it really doesn’t.)

1. We mothers have been placed, by God, in a position of influence. During this time of year, I make the most of my influence in cultivating gratitude. I’ve discovered that if I “ponder,” aloud, it greases the axels of my children’s minds. I think out loud at the kitchen table, during a long walk, or while peeling vegetables. And I ask lots of questions. “What do you think it felt like for Gramps to be away from home at Thanksgiving time during World War II? What sacrifice was made? How can we express our gratitude to Gramps?” Or, “Let’s remember why the ten Boom sisters were grateful for fleas in the barracks. (The Hiding Place by Corrie ten Boom) Is there a difficulty that we can be grateful for right now?” My goal is to stir my children’s hearts to thankfulness and a heartfelt understanding that gratitude can happen even in the midst of hardship.

2. We don’t cover every topic I’ve mentioned each year. In the four weeks that we choose to focus on Thanksgiving, we choose two really great biographies and we read them aloud as a family. We choose stories of individuals who had difficulties and overcame them with the Lord’s help. When we read together, again, I am looking for my children’s hearts. I’m fishing for spiritual, intellectual and emotional skills. How do they feel about the story? What emotions does the tale evoke in them? What kinds of thoughts occur to them as they hear about the obstacles? How would they handle a situation like that? Did God provide as they thought He would? Did he provide better? Or differently? Would they have worried or been troubled? What does the Bible say about that?

3. We have fun! Be creatively thankful! Bless others with acts of kindness. (A plate of cookies, a favored plant, or a hug and heartfelt words help folks feel special.) Plan your celebrations and treasure the season!

The combination of our Thanksgiving Tree, the unit study and great biographies have always sown a seed of gratitude in our home. To ponder the sufferings of others as they have plowed ahead with faith helps build a foundation of perseverance with thankfulness. If a child can grasp, during the scope of his or her childhood, the idea that God allows difficulties with the purpose of spiritual growth and maturity in mind, they will learn to embrace trials with joyful thanksgiving as they surrender to Jesus. (James 1:2-3) It is with this goal in mind, that I have purposed the four weeks preceding the Thanksgiving holiday as our Thanksgiving Season. These weeks have become the most anticipated family season of the year and as a mom, it has been my greatest joy to see my children grow in gratitude.

It is good to give thanks to the Lord and to sing praises to Your name, O Most High; To declare Your lovingkindness in the morning and your faithfulness by night, with the ten-stringed lute and with the harp, with resounding music upon the lyre. For You, O Lord, have made me glad by what You have done, I will sing for joy at the works of Your hands. ~Psalm 92:1-4

Favorite Thanksgiving Resources:

Amanda Bennett’s Unit Study Adventures: Thanksgiving – Prayer, Pilgrims, Native Americans

Thanksgiving Crafts at Enchanted Learning

Turkey, Pilgrims, and Indian Corn: The Story of Thanksgiving Symbols by Edna Bartha

Eating the Plates: A Pilgrim Book of Food and Manners by Lucille Recht Penner

Three Young Pilgrims by Cheryl Harness

Sarah Morton’s Day: A Day in the Life of a Pilgrim Girl by Kate Waters

Samuel Eaton’s Day: A Day in the Life of a Pilgrim Boy by Kate Waters

Tapenum’s Day: A Wampanoag Indian Boy in Pilgrim Times by Kate Waters

The Pilgrim’s First Thanksgiving by Ann McGovern

If You Sailed on the Mayflower in 1620 by Ann McGovern

Christy: The Sweetest Gift

The Waltons: The Thanksgiving Story

Little House on the Prairie: The Little House Years

Of Plimouth Plantation by William Bradford

Heroes of the Faith series by various authors

Trailblazer Series by Dave and Netta Jackson

Hero Tales by Dave and Netta Jackson

The Light and the Glory for Children by Peter Marshall and David Manuel

The Bible

Yvonne Ferlita, married for nineteen years, is a homeschooling mom to four children from kindergarten to high school. Her family has been blessed with eleven years of grace filled homeschooling. She does her best to follow Christ in educating her children, and she believes that when it boils down to it, that means, “No Nonsense!” Visit her homeschooling blog, The No Nonsense Homeschool or her personal blog, Grateful for Grace.