This month, I am studying Psalm 118 for my devotions. I use a yearly subscription to Mama’s Refill, where the author, Pam Forster, walks us through inductive Bible studies. In Day 3, she had us go read some online commentaries about Psalm 118. I didn’t get very far as I only had about 15 minutes to do my devotions before I went to work, and I was so thrilled in the first commentary I read.

Here are some of the highlights from C. H. Spurgeon’s notes on Psalm 118 found in the Treasury of David:

O give thanks unto the Lord; for he is good: because his mercy endureth for ever. Psalm 118:1

The author wants us to praise God with him. I love this quote, “Grateful hearts are greedy of men’s tongues, and would monopolize them all for God’s glory. ”

Here is another wonderful thought:

Have we been of a forgetful or murmuring spirit? Let us hear the lively language of the text, and allow it to speak to our hearts: “Cease your complaining, cease from all self glorification, and give thanks unto the Lord.” “For he is good.” This is reason enough for giving him thanks; goodness is his essence and nature, and therefore he is always to be praised whether we are receiving anything from him or not.

Wow! I know I can have a forgetful or murmuring spirit at times. What a great reminder to thank God when I feel like complaining, because He is always good.

Let Israel now say, that his mercy endureth for ever.
Let the house of Aaron now say, that his mercy endureth for ever.
 Let them now that fear the Lord say, that his mercy endureth for ever.
Psalm 118:2-4

Here is a wonderful thought about praising God now:

In the three exhortations, to Israel, to the house of Aaron, and to them that fear the Lord, there is a repetition of the exhortation to say, “that his mercy endureth for ever.” We are not only to believe, but to declare the goodness of God; truth is not to be hushed up, but proclaimed. God would have his people act as witnesses, and not stand silent in the day when his honour is impugned. Specially is it our joy to speak out to the honour and glory of God when we think up, in the exaltation of his dear Son. We should shout “Hosannah,” and sing loud “Hallelujahs” when we behold the stone which the builders rejected lifted into its proper place.
In each of the three exhortations notice carefully the word “now.” There is no time like time present for telling out the praises of God.

Are you telling others about the goodness of God. This should be such an exciting truth, that we cannot stay quiet! Every day, when we wake up, that day is the “now”. Every day, God is good and merciful, so every day, we should praise Him!

The voice of rejoicing and salvation is in the tabernacles of the righteous: the right hand of the Lord doeth valiantly.
Psalm 118:15

Tabernacles means tents — or dwellings. We who are saved should have homes full of rejoicing. Thankful, joyful homes.

The families of believers are happy, and they should take pains to give their happiness a voice by their family devotion. . . . Let none of us be silent in our households: if we have salvation let us have joy, and if we have joy let us give it a tongue wherewith it may magnify the Lord.

I will praise thee: for thou hast heard me, and art become my salvation.
Psalm 118:21

Here we can see God is a personal God to the psalmist. The psalmist address God and praises Him.

How well it is in all our songs of praise to let the heart have direct and distinct communion with God himself!

We should also be specific in our praise.

He praises God by mentioning his favours, weaving his song out of the divine goodness which he had experienced. In these words he gives the reason for his praise,—his answered prayer, and the deliverance which he had received in consequence. 

O give thanks unto the Lord; for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever. Psalm 118:29

Let’s start and end our day with praising God for He is good! His mercy endureth forever!

There are many other Thanksgiving printables I have shared over the years. Here is the link to most of them. Last week’s printable can be found HERE, and the four printables from the week before can be found HERE.

Here were a couple of my favorite posts from last week:

• Thanksgiving Unity Study from Jennifer Lambert
• Three Steps for Appreciating the Effort not the Outcome from A Hippy and a Redneck

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Every Thanksgiving season, I like to spend extra time contemplating how much I have for which I can give thanks.

Last week, I wrote a post on being thankful for God’s goodness. I shared four printables that you or your kids could use to journal what you are thankful for this season. Today, I prepared a printable that includes 6 ways that God is good to us. You can print it out and meditate on these truths. I know I am starting to feel stressed already. If we take just a few minutes each day reflecting on how good God is to us, it will remind us to keep our priorities in check and be thankful for what we already have.

To get in a true gratitude frame of mind, not only can we focus on the goodness of God, but we can also spend time considering God’s amazing attributes.

Here are ten of God’s attributes. Maybe take time to praise God for a different attribute daily.

1. God is immutable – He never changes.

   The same God that worked miracles in the Bible can work miracles today! The promises of God that are for all people are for us today.
   Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever. Hebrews 13:8

2. God is omnipotent – He is all powerful.

   He is mighty to save and He is greater than anyone or anything else.
   Ah Lord GOD! behold, thou hast made the heaven and the earth by thy great power and stretched out arm, and there is nothing too hard for thee: Jeremiah 32:17

3. God is omnipresent – He is everywhere.

   He is here for us in the good and the bad times.
   Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; Even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me. Psalm 139:7-10

4. God is faithful.

   Know therefore that the Lord thy God, he is God, the faithful God, which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations; Deuteronomy 7:9

5. God is good.

   O give thanks unto the Lord, for He is good. Psalm 136:1

6. God is just — He is right and perfect in all He does.

   Therefore the Lord waits to be gracious to you, and therefore he exalts himself to show mercy to you. For the Lord is a God of justice; blessed are all those who wait for him. Isaiah 30:18 ESV

7. God is merciful.

   For thou, Lord, art good, and ready to forgive; and plenteous in mercy unto all them that call upon thee. Psalm 86:5

8. God is gracious.

   But thou, O Lord, art a God full of compassion, and gracious, long suffering, and plenteous in mercy and truth. Psalm 86:15

9. God is loving.

   He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love. In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. I John 4:8-10

10. God is holy.

     There is none holy as the Lord: for there is none beside thee: neither is there any rock like our God. I Samuel 2:2

Next week, I’ll share more attributes of God. Praise God for Who He is!

I’ll also try to make more printables for these attributes of God. If I keep these truths before me during the day, I find it much easier to remember to give thanks.

There are many other Thanksgiving printables I have shared over the years. Here is the link to most of them.

Here were a couple of my favorite posts from last week:

• Thankful Thursdays from Finding Green in the Desert
• 4 Ways to Make a Difference in Someone’s Life from Soul Survival

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I love November and the emphasis on being thankful.

I can get focused on my earthly worries and finances and children — and forget to keep my focus on God and how is so good. Over my years of blogging, I have done many posts on being thankful and on the goodness of God; however, I don’t think anyone can ever be too thankful. It’s always good to stop and consider what God has done for you.

As I was thinking of the verse Psalm 136:1 where it says, “O give thanks unto the Lord, for He is good,” I thought, “How can I thank God for being good to me?”

There are many materialistic things for which I can give thanks to God such as shelter, food, and clothing. There are many personal things that I can be thankful for such as my family and friends. Thanking God for the blessings He has given us is important as we acknowledge God’s goodness to us.

But more importantly, I should praise God for who He is. For His being good. He is good all the time — whether or not it seems like I have received materialistic blessings or personal blessings.

How is God good? Here are just a few ways He is good:

• He loves us.

  Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever! Psalm 107:1 ESV

• His love gave a gift of eternal life to anyone who will accept that gift.

  For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. John 3:16

• His goodness leads us to repentance.

  Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance? Romans 2:4

• He is compassionate and merciful to us — even though we don’t deserve it.

  The Lord is good to all, and his mercy is over all that he has made. Psalm 145:9 ESV

• God can work good out of even bad circumstances.

  And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. Romans 8:28

• We can experience the goodness of God when we trust in Him!

  O taste and see that the Lord is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in him. Psalm 34:8

• He is the One who has given us all our good gifts.

  Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. James 1:17

To help you focus on being thankful this month and to remember the goodness of God, here are some printables!

Click on the pictures to print out the sheets below!

 

 

 

There are many other Thanksgiving printables I have shared over the years. Here is the link to most of them.

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It was my turn to teach the kids this past Wednesday night at our church. We are doing a summer program on the heroes of the faith. This week’s lesson was on Daniel in the Lion’s Den.

When I first started thinking about this lesson, I was wondering how to make the lesson stand out to the kids as they all already knew the story. I also went to Pinterest to look for craft ideas.

On Pinterest, I found this bulletin board idea, that I converted to a craft. I used this craft as the springboard for the direction of the lesson; and after the lesson, we did the craft.

Since our craft talked about “not staining their reputation”, I started the story of Daniel 6 talking about Daniel’s reputation.

I had 3 papers of large print that I shared with the kids during the lesson. The first page talked about what the word “reputation” means: (Access all three papers HERE.)

REPUTATION

• Is what others think about you.
• Is what a person is known for.
• Is based on someone’s behavior.
• Could be bad or good.

I then asked them the following questions that was on the 2nd paper:

• What was Daniel’s reputation?
• What was he known for?
• Was it good or bad?

Since no fault could be found in Daniel, the presidents and princes that Daniel was over had the king pass a law that they knew Daniel would disobey. Daniel’s reputation was that he always obeyed his God. We see this in verses 4 and 5:

Then the presidents and princes sought to find occasion against Daniel concerning the kingdom; but they could find none occasion nor fault; forasmuch as he was faithful, neither was there any error or fault found in him. Then said these men, We shall not find any occasion against this Daniel, except we find it against him concerning the law of his God.

We also see the Daniel’s reputation in verse 16.

Then the king commanded, and they brought Daniel, and cast him into the den of lions. Now the king spake and said unto Daniel, Thy God whom thou servest continually, he will deliver thee.

So we see that even the presidents and princes that did not like Daniel considered him to be faithful, without fault, and obedient to the law of God. The king knew that Daniel served God continually. What a great reputation!

I ended the lesson asking the following questions that I had on the 3rd piece of paper:

• What is your reputation?
• How can you have a reputation like Daniel?

We discussed how that Daniel was without fault because he relied on God to help him do right daily. He prayed at least three times a day for God’s help and He knew God’s laws. If we want to have a good reputation, a reputation that we serve God, we have to first of all know God as our Savior. Then we must daily rely on God for His strength through prayer and getting into God’s Word.

After the lesson, we went to do our craft. I gave them this sheet of paper that was printed on cardstock: (You can print it out HERE.)

I had them color below the green line green, and  color the area above the green line blue. They could color the sun yellow.

Then they cut out the three articles of clothing on this sheet of paper. (You can print it out HERE.)

They made markings on two of the paper clothing items, and left one completely unmarked. After cutting the three pieces of clothing out, they glued them on the clothesline so that the perfect robe was in the middle. Here is a picture of one completed craft from last night:

I also made this coloring sheet to go along with the verse for them to memorize with this lesson: (You can print it off HERE.)

Thanks for coming and reading these Thoughtful posts! I will highlight some posts from the last few parties next Thursday!

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It’s been a super busy and tiring week — but a wonderful week as we are having VBS at our church this week.

As it is now past midnight, I will share a printable I made for MomStrong book study that we did last week. We had to skip this week due to VBS.

Last week, we finished chapters 8 and 9 of Becoming MomStrong. I really liked chapter 8, so I made this printable for the ladies. You can click HERE to print it off.

This chapter talks about how we must be strong enough to live out the truth, which means we must not be afraid to let others see our weaknesses. We have to live our lives in the light of God’s Word.

Yes, we are weak many times as moms, and only when we realize our weakness do we become strong through Him.

And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. 2 Corinthiahs 12:9a

Heidi St. John also talks about how God must prune us before He can use us. Many times that means that He takes us through times of suffering so that we can be transformed when we allow God’s truth to shine onto our suffering. On the printable, I included many verses from John 15 as that chapter talks about how we must abide in Him if we are to bring forth fruit and to have fullness of joy.

The wonderful truth is that even in the bad times, even in the difficulties, even in the suffering, we can be assured of the fact that God is good! We can trust Him!

And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. Romans 8:28

So during those difficulties and struggles, remember to keep your eyes on Him! He promises that His mercies are new every morning. He has proved that He is faithful. He tells us to abide in Him and we will experience fullness of joy. We just have to not get distracted by the cares of this world. Keep looking up instead of around!

Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. Hebrews 12:2

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In  many of my Thoughtful Thursday posts, I’ve shared how I’ve been doing a mom’s book study in our church this summer. I am loving meeting with these ladies weekly and the encouragement we can get from each other.

This summer, we have been reading the book, Becoming MomStrong:  How to Fight with All That’s in You for Your Family & Your Faith by Heidi St. John.

I feel like every other chapter is one that I love. The other chapters are good, but probably resonate better with someone who has different life experiences than I have had.

In a previous post, I made a printable that I gave the ladies from chapters 1-3.

I did not make a printable for chapters 4-5, but I did love this quote from chapter 5:

Your great accomplishment may not be something you do but someone you raise. — Heidi St. John

I loved chapter 6 as it was on trusting God during the hard times and the trials we face.

All of us face hard times. Trials will come. How we respond to those trials will teach our kids whether or not we truly trust God. In all of the chapters, Heidi St. John brings us back to the fact that we need to have a strong relationship with God if we are going to raise strong kids. So in the hard times, we need to run to God and to the promises in His Word. Here are some of the references Heidi shared in the book that can help us during the tough times. I typed out the verses and shared them in another printable for my ladies so that they have a little “cheat sheet.” During those hard times, they now can run to the sheet and claim those promises and pray those verses to their God. You can print out the sheet at the bottom of the post.

Here are some verses you can claim during trials:

Go to God during your trials:

• I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in him will I trust. Ps. 91:2
• The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? the Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid. Ps. 27:1
• Some trust in chariots, and some in horses: but we will remember the name of the Lord our God. Ps. 20:7
•  The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusted in him, and I am helped: therefore my heart greatly rejoiceth; and with my song will I praise him. Ps. 28:7

Claim these promises when you are struggling:

• Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:37-39
• Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore. Psalm 16:11
• Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Matthew 11:28
• He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength. Isaiah 40:29
• But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. I Cor. 15:57
• Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. Jn 14:27
• This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope. It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness. Lamentations 3:21-23

I also loved this quote from chapter 6:

God is big enough, wise enough, and good enough to be trusted. Heidi St. John

You can go HERE to print out the worksheet.

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It’s been an incredible busy week! We arrived home from our trip to Illinois, Michigan, and Canada (Niagara Falls) in the middle of the night Friday night. Saturday was spent unpacking, doing laundry, and getting ready for church on Sunday. I had my first Mom’s book study meeting on Tuesday morning, and I had to teach the children’s group on Wednesday. Plus there was the restocking of food supplies, dog-sitting responsibilities, getting my 8th grade daughter started on a FLVS (Florida Virtual School) Spanish I class, and trying to get my high school daughter finished with a few of her classes from last year.

For our Wednesday night children’s program, we are using a curriculum that talks about some super heroes of the faith. This week, the lesson was on Joseph.

The curriculum is very simplistic, and the lesson was only centered on one part of Joseph’s life; but the overall theme was that having faith in God means staying positive even when bad things happen to you. One idea the lesson gave was to start off with an object lesson of a half-full glass of water and ask the children if they saw a half-full glass or a half-empty glass. The half-full glass is the positive way to look at the glass.

I had the kids help share with me all the bad things they remembered that happened in Joseph’s life. I had prepared sentence strips to go in my pocket chart of 5 bad things that happened in Joseph’s life. As the children told me the different circumstances they remembered, I added them to the chart. Then, I went back and shared how we know from Scripture that Joseph stayed positive in all of those circumstances. I added the sentences that showed how Joseph stayed positive or trusted in God next to the bad circumstances. The bad circumstances I had printed on blue cardstock, and Joseph’s responses I had printed on green cardstock so the kids could easily see how Joseph responded positively to what we would consider awful things that happened to him.

Here are the five life bad life circumstances of Joseph that we talked about in class:

1. Joseph’s  mother probably died when we was a young boy. This can be debated, but the Bible says that Joseph’s mother died in childbirth when Benjamin was born. Many scholars believe that Joseph was around 4-7 years of age. Now Joseph is left without a mother and 10 brothers who do not like him. Of course the children did not think about this circumstance as this wasn’t talked about much in the Bible.
2. His half-brothers hated him because he was Jacob’s favorite son.
3. He was sold into slavery. (This was mentioned by the children — or that he was thrown into a pit.)
4. He was lied about by Potiphar’s wife and put into jail. (The children also mentioned his being put in jail.)
5. He was forgotten about by the cupbearer and had to remain two more years in jail after interpreting the cupbearer’s dream.

Next I showed some ways that we can see that Joseph was positive or showed that He trusted in God:

1. #1-2 go together. Even though he was motherless and even though he was hated by  his brothers, he stayed obedient to his father and was spiritually in a place where God could give him special dreams to show Joseph how God was going to use him one day. He didn’t get bitter, complain, and put himself in a position where God would not be able to use him. I read Genesis 37:13-17 where it showed his obedience to his father.
   Next to #1, I put the strip: “He was obedient.“
2. Next to #2, I put the strip: “He listened to the Lord.“
3. After he was sold into slavery, we know he stayed positive and trusted in God because we see the passage Genesis 39:2-5 where Potiphar’s house was blessed because of Joseph. Potiphar knew that God was with Joseph. Next to #3, I put the strip, “He trusted in God.“
4. Joseph trusted in God and did what was right even when he knew he could be killed. The punishment for being with the captain of the army’s wife was death! We did not go into detail here, but we did talk about how he knew that by not doing what Potiphar’s wife wanted him to do, he knew that he would be punished; yet he chose to obey God. I read the end of Genesis 39:9 and Genesis 39:21 and 23. Next to #4’s sentence strip, I placed the strip, “He did what was right.“
5. When the Pharaoh was finally told about Joseph, Joseph did not take the glory for being able to interpret the dreams. He immediately gave glory to the true super-hero, his God. I read Genesis 41:16 where Joseph gives God all the credit and then verse 38 which shows how Pharaoh realized that the Spirit of God was in Joseph. Next to #5, I placed the strip of words, “He gave glory to God.”

Under all of the strips, I put the final strip, “He stayed positive.” Then I quickly shared three sentences where Joseph actually speaks that show his positivism and trust in God:

1. He names his first son Manasseh which means, “God has made my forget my toil (work or hardship).” Here he is acknowledging that life had been hard, but that God was good to him and he could trust God to do what was right.
2. He names his second son Ephraim which means, “God has made me fruitful in the land of my affliction.” Again, we see his positive outlook on life. Even though he had been afflicted in Egypt, God made him to be fruitful or blessed.
3. When Joseph’s brothers were afraid that Joseph would harm them after their father died, Joseph tells them,

But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive.

Here, he acknowledges that sinful people do harmful and evil things, yet God is in control and can be trusted to do what is right. He saw God’s positive plan in his life because he trusted God’s sovereignty in his life completely.

I closed the lesson by discussing that life is not always easy. There will be hard times. People may die when we are not ready for them to die. Car accidents happen; people get sick. Sometimes parents fight and maybe even get divorced. This world is a sinful place, and bad things do happen. However, God has a plan for our life and we need to trust Him and know that He loves us.

We finished the lesson with Romans 8:28. Then we went and did the coffee mug craft that you have probably seen on Pinterest. I bought 15 mugs at thrift stores, washed them in the dishwasher, bought some Sharpie oil based  markers, and had the children decorate their own mug. Every time they drink out of it, they were to remember that their cup was half-full and to be positive, to trust God even in the bad circumstances of life.

(If you want to do the craft, have the children decorate their mugs using the oil-based Sharpie markers and then bake in the oven at 250 degrees for 2 hours. I left them in the oven overnight after turning the oven off.)

If you would like to print out the sentence strips I used, you can access them HERE.

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