Many of you know that I made printables for Thanksgiving that our family used for family devotions, but would have been great for homeschooling or Sunday School purposes.

I started to think of what I could do for Christmas, and had a few ideas–but this is the only one I’ve been able to finish this year (and I probably won’t get any more done this year!) [Read more…]

For this Thanksgiving, I wanted to do something all month in our family devotions about being thankful to God for all He has given us–and not just in a superficial way such as, “I’m thankful for our house.” or “I’m thankful that we have food.” I do want my children to be thankful for those things, but I want them to think about how we should be thankful for ALL things, and how that God has given us so much!

To reinforce the attitude of thankfulness all month, I thought we could meditate on verses in the Bible that deal with thankfulness towards God. I made up four printables with different verses on each one. You might think of totally different ideas that could be done with these printables, but here are a couple of the ideas I had:

• Copy these verses on cardstock, laminate them, and use them as placemats. Talk about the verses over breakfast or dinner.
• I took a clear plastic vinyl tablecover, printed out the 4 main printables, taped them to the underside of the tablecover, and put it on top of my other Thanksgiving tablecoloth. It would have been okay if I put it right on my table, but I liked it on the pretty tablecloth. Now we can see those verses all month, but they won’t get wet or dirty. (I bought my clear vinyl tablecover  at Hobby Lobby off a roll. I could buy it by the yard.)    I laid out the verses the way I wanted them. Then I turned them over and put them in the opposite order. I put one piece of tape on the sides of the paper–I spaced the papers so that one piece of tape could hold the sides of 2 papers (see bottom right picture. When it was all taped, I turned the table cloth over, and it was in the right order.
  

  13

We plan on using one printable each week for the four weeks of November. For each week, there is the one printable that we will discuss at devotions. There is also a printable that can be copied for each child where they can fill in some blanks. Here are a few things that could be done with the worksheet for each printable:

• The child could could  keep their printable and put it in their room, in a folder, or on their wall. We will probably keep our kids’ sheets for their keepsake box.
• You could cut each worksheet into sections (between each question and verse.)  They could use the strips as bookmarks or make a big paper chain all month to see how long your family’s chain get the month of November.
• If you only had a couple of children, you could  probably tape their strips to the underside of the tablecloth all month. Or you could tape a couple of strips per child.

To print the printables (there are 13 in total), click on the printable (the pictures below), and it will take you to my google docs where you can print them out. I included a black and white version for those who do not have color printers.

There are many ways that you could use these printables, but here is what we are planning to do:  

For the first week of November, we would discuss the verses Psalm 95:2-3:

 

Every night we read the verses, and discuss one of these questions each night. This could be done in the morning with breakfast, with your Bible lesson if your homeschool, or over dinner.

 

The second week we will discuss different attributes of God for which we can be thankful.

Each night, we will take one of the four attributes listed on the printable, explain what that attribute means, and apply it to their lives. One night I will let the kids think of other attributes of God that we can be thankful for that are not included on our printable.

 

• Click HERE to read more about the goodness of God with one more printable.
• Click HERE to read more on the mercy of God with five more printables.
• Click HERE to read more on the righteousness of God with two more printables.
• Click HERE to read more on the lovingkindess of God with four more printables.

The third week, we will look at the verses in the Bible which are commandments from God to be thankful.

There are four verses, so we’ll discuss one each night. Maybe the last night, we will read some verses where people are praising God in the Bible or we will spend time singing praises to God.

Each night, the children would answer the question that goes with each verse.

 

 

The fourth week we will discuss what we should do when we do not feel like being thankful. How do we keep from complaining?

Discuss the verses:

What does 2 Corinthians 9:15 mean by “His unspeakable gift?”

How do we get into God’s presence? Psalm 16:11

What does 1 John 5:14-15 mean by “ask anything according to His will?”

 

Even though we are studying these verses, in my family’s case, some of their grumbling and complaining is now a bad habit. So we are going to try an extra incentive this whole month and see if we can retrain our bad habit into a good habit. Or I am praying that the incentive will at least make us realize how much complaining we really do.
I have made a printable of the first half of Psalm 34:8.

On top of the printable, I have placed eight little containers–one for all of us plus one for the extra candy  I used empty plastic baby food containers. Inside each container, I put 5 pieces of candy like M & M’s. Every time they grumble or complain, a piece of candy comes out. Every time they are thankful or have a good attitude, they can put a piece of candy in the container. The next morning, they can eat the candy in the container, and start over again. I’ll let you know how it goes!

 In 2014, we are continuing our paper chain from last year!

This year, we have printables on why we should give thanks for others and we will make cards for others that we know.

• Go HERE to see the first set of printables made so far for devotions.
• Go HERE for the printable Thank You notes.

• Go HERE for a printable on being thankful for the family of God.

I have a group of Christian friends who are all married, and most of them are in the stage of life where they still have several children living at home. One of the ladies asked recently what some of our favorite verses were for being a good wife. Here were the verses that were given:

The lady that gave the middle verse said, ” I can’t be a good wife in and of my own strength, I NEED God’s help and He is the strength of my heart and my portion, He has the strength and the wisdom to help me be what I need to be no matter what I face.” I thought that was a very wise statement! I hope these verses can be an encouragement to you.

I thought it would be nice to use these verses as my desktop background, so I made a few with a colored background.

I have made PDF’s of all these verses, as the print quality is poor if you just right-click it. So to print the verses:

• Click on any of the pictures below. It will take you to a share sight.
• Click on “View the PDF version” in the upper right hand corner.
• It will give you the PDF that you can save or print. (Icons appear in the lower right hand corner.) 

I copied the multicolored one above on magnetic paper, trimmed off the edges, and stuck it onto my refrigerator!

Later, I’ll try to put each verse on their own card and maybe make them into printable bookmarks!

What are your favorite verses on being a good wife?

My children are being raised in a land where they have everything they need and quite possibly everything they could ever desire. I am so thankful to be living in the great United States of America and to have all the modern conveniences we have; however, I do not want my children to grow up with a sense of entitlement. I do not want them to just assume that nice things should come to them.

How do I curb this tendency in my children? Of course, there are many topics we could now talk about such as instilling a good work ethic in our children where they work for special toys and privileges or we expose them to others who have less than they do. Or they could give to the needy. Yes, there are many objective paths we can take to help our children to be grateful for all the wonderful things they have received.

But one of the simplest ways to teach our children gratitude is to have them write thank you notes for the gifts they have received. This encourages the thought process that they did not necessarily deserve that gift or have to have that gift. Someone gave it to them out of the kindness of his heart, and they should express gratitude for that kind act.

Now we know that this all sounds great, but how many of you parents are moaning and groaning inside your head when you have to sit down and help your 5 or 6 year old write thank you notes, and it takes forever for them to write the notes! Yet you do not want this to be a mommy thank-you note. You want it to be done by them!

Well, that was my thought process with my 3rd child for her Kindergarten graduation presents that she received. I mean, what kid has 30 people come to a Kindergarten graduation? Well, mine did! And then she got all these gifts! Just for finishing a year of a half-day of school! She better be thankful!

We started to make thank you notes as I was too cheap to run out and get some expensive thank you cards. It was a great idea . . . however . . . they never got finished.

I printed up a form for her to fill in the blanks. We glued and pasted and made scrapbook cards. We got them all done except the final filling in of the blanks. Good intentions . . . and pretty good fail!

So for me, I have determined that I must now be too busy to do those kind of cards anymore. I know some people can do it all, and they make great cards that are amazing; but I know my limitations.

I had a problem though. I saw that I did not always have time to do the creative route, but I still wanted my kids to give thank you cards that don’t take all day to do with me spelling out 30 words per note! (And going practically insane in the process!)  And I didn’t want to spend $10 for 10 cards for the cutesy fill-in-the blank cards that you can buy in the store.

SO . . .

I MADE MY OWN!!

Now I have never done anything like this before, so they may be rather amateurish, but I was quite happy with them.

Here are pictures of the 8 printables available at this time. Each page would make 2- 5″ x 7″ cards. They would print out on an 8 1/2″ x 11″ paper that could be cut down the middle and might have to be trimmed up on the edges a little. I would recommend printing them out on cardstock or on matte photo paper.

Directions for printing:

1. Click on the image.
2. Then click on “View the PDF Version” in the top left hand corner.
3. Then the print/save icons come up in the bottom right hand corner.

If you would like to make your cards, here is what I used for the  middle of the ones that Kristi started. You can click on it and print it out the same way as the printables.

If you would like me to change the colors or even the candle number, it should be easy for me to do those little changes and add it to these printables. I would ask that you would follow me on Facebook or subscribe to the email subscriptions if you would like me to customize any of these thank you notes printables. I can’t promise to be able to make more printables, but I will try!

So tell me  honestly, do you like these? Should I try to do more and add more bling? I put it on white background so as not to eat up all your ink, but would it be better with a colored background? I’m a newbie, and I would love your feedback!