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!
13 Printables–Verses for Thanksgiving and Worksheets to go along with the verses.
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:
Click on this picture to print it out.
Click on this picture to print it out.
Click on this picture to print it out.
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.
Click on this picture to print it out.
Click on this picture to print it out.
Click on this picture to print it out.
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.
Click on this picture to print it out.
Click on this picture to print it out.
Click on this picture to print it out.
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?
Click on this picture to print it out.
Click on this picture to print it out.
Click on this picture to print it out.
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.
Click on this picture to print it out.
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.
Tammy, great job planning this out, and the sheets are beautifully done! I had a thought on the third week on commands to be thankful: your third question is, “How is giving thanks a good testimony to those who aren’t saved?” The Lord really brought this concept home to my heart before our first furlough. I spoke to Rhonda’s ladies’ group on this subject. The connection between Philippians 2:14 (a very well-known verse) and the verse immediately following it, vs. 15-16 is amazing and convicting! It might be a good one to read the night you discuss that question. Great thoughts–if I have time, we might join you in doing a family Bible study on the subject. It’s hard to make Thanksgiving real here; maybe we can do some of these things.
Philippians 2:14-16a
“Do all things without murmurings and disputings:
“That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world;
“Holding forth the word of life…”
Isn’t that connection amazing? We ought to learn the first verse in context! 🙂
Thanks for the feedback. I still need to study out the verses more, and I am thankful for any insight I can get. Thanks too for the link!
I don’t know how I missed this before! What a wonderful idea. I like the idea of putting the clear table cover over your table cloth.
My kids are pretty good about not complaining, but I can tell a change in the air when I’m in a state of discontent. The whole family seems to follow.
You are right about us as moms setting the tone–I haven’t been doing a great job lately, and I’m hoping this will help me too.
Wow! The printables are great and you already did all the planning and prep for us. Thank you!
You’re welcome. The blog definitely pushed me to get it done, but it is something that we will definitely use, soI am thankful for the push.
You did a great job, those printables are beautiful!
Thank you! It is fun learning how to do new things!
Pinned. I hope you can link this to Family Fun Friday – it has a great shot at getting featured! I plan to print this and use it in our home. 🙂
Monica
http://www.happyandblessedhome.com
http://www.happyandblessedhome.com/2013/10/family-fun-friday-week-42.html
Thanks for pinning! I love your linky, and I linked up to it. I’m starting a pinterest linky on Monday. As soon as I have the button, I’ll add it to your link up page!
Awesome! BTW – I am featuring this post! It goes live later today. Just great work – so glad you shared this!
Monica
Thanks so much for the feature and thank you for the encouragement!
These look great! I found your post on Family Fun Friday. I’ve pinned it to my Thanksgiving board 🙂 Thank you for sharing!
Thanks for coming over and pinning! I’m going to check out your blog now!
Thanks for pinning! We are looking forward to doing it as a family.
This is just beautiful and so well thought out. I love that Mommy and Daddy have gratitude containers too 🙂 And I love LOVE that they are old baby food containers. I have just a couple left around I still use. This is so wonderful I have to share it 🙂
Thank you! Mommy needs to work on her gratitude too, and I had better give Daddy some candy, or he would eat ours!
This is so good! I love this idea! Memorization is good for kids of all ages!
It sure is! And we need to memorize some about thankfulness in our house!
I love the idea about the candy and complaining. Your printables look great and easy to follow the directions to use them in our house. Thanks for sharing such thoughtful and great tips.
Thanks! Hopefully instead of saying, “stop complaining!”, they will be encouraged to be thankful.
Thanks for hosting the linky. I hope it went well for you.
No problem! I’ll go over and grab the button.
This is really great! I don’t know how I missed this post — it’s been a busy couple of weeks, and I haven’t been reading blogs as much as I’d like. I think you’re weekly cards are really cute, provide great substance, and are really thought provoking on a level children will understand!
Thanks. We are doing them for family devotions, and the older girls are enjoying writing out their responses; it’s making them think; and then they are taking turns stapling the strips to make the paper chain!
Help. where do I click to download? Thanks.
All of the papers are pictures of the printables. Just click on whatever picture (printable) you want. There are 13 in total. It will take you to my google documents where you can click the print icon in the top left hand corner you will see the print icon. Does this help or do you still need help?
Very nice!! May god continue to use you and your talents.
Thank you for your kind words. May God get all the glory.
Definitely need to try that activity with my kids! Thanks for sharing at Mom’s Library; I featured you this week!
Thanks for featuring the printables! I love your link-up!
These are incredible!! Thank you for such an amazing resource!!!!
Thank you so much! I am still new at making printables, but I just made something that I knew we could use as a family. I’m glad other people like them and are able to use them as well!
A practical word on printing the color versions- the yellow may not show up well. 🙁
But…thank you for doing these- the color version “problem” reminds me to be thankful for not just a printer/computer at home, but a dolor printer where i can have this problem!!
Thanks for letting me know about that. I did print them for us at home, and I could see the gold/yellow really well, so I’m sorry you’re having that problem. I wonder if anybody else did, because I could switch out the color if I knew many people were experiencing what you are experiencing. Let me know if you would like me to do that, and which printable is the worst. Thanks for being thankful anyway!