Steve Arterburn

Don’t let this wonderful
holiday slip away without giving thanks to God.  Here are some thoughts to assist you in cultivating a thankful
spirit within your family this year!

1.   Tell the story of pastor
Martin Rinkart.  In 1636 the Thirty
Years’ War was raging. Death, disease, and economic collapse enveloped Europe
in a fog of terror. One German pastor, Martin Rinkart, is said to have buried
five thousand of his parishioners in one year’an average of fifteen people
daily! Yet under the shadow of death and amidst a crucible of chaos,
Rinkart penned this beautiful table grace for his children:

Now thank we all our God

With heart and hands and voices

Who wondrous things had done

In whom His world rejoices.

Who, from our mother’s arms

Hath led us on our way

With countless gifts of love

And
still is ours today.

Was this man
in denial? Out of touch? Hardly. Rinkart was a person of audacious faith. He
knew thanksgiving flows from love of God, not outward circumstance.  Before you eat, share this story and sing
the table grace he wrote for his children:

2.    Have
each member of the family find a person in the Bible who gave thanks to God. Go
around the table, each reading about the thankful person.

3.    A
few days before Thanksgiving encourage your family to be thinking about this year so that they can share with the group one or two things they are deeply grateful for this year.

4.    Serve
together as a family. Collect canned goods, volunteer in a soup kitchen, or
invite an outsider (maybe a college student or someone who is new to the area)
to celebrate Thanksgiving with you.

5.    Have
your kids make creative place cards for Thanksgiving dinner. Instead of just
cards with names, have them write, ‘I’m thankful for Grandma.’ Or be even more
specific, ‘I’m thankful for Grandma’s chocolate chip cookies. ‘I’m thankful for
Dad’s funny stories.’ ‘I’m thankful for trips to the fire station with uncle
Joe.’ This will cultivate a thankful heart in your children and bless the
people who are sharing the meal with you. (Even if you’re not hosting
Thanksgiving dinner, volunteer to bring place cards’even if you don’t normally
use them).

6.   Have
your kids each pick a song/hymn about thankfulness and sing it before dinner or
while you’re cleaning dishes.

7.    Watch Peanuts The Mayflower Voyage with your
kids and talk with them about it.

8.    William Stidger was a pastor during the Great Depression who sensed the Spirit of God telling him to give thanks to the people who had been a blessing to his life and encourage them during this terrible time. He wrote a letter to a dear teacher who had instilled a love for poetry and literature in him–a love that influenced his writing and preaching. She wrote him back, “”My Dear Willy, I can’t tell you how much your note meant to me. I am in my eighties, living alone in a small room, cooking my own meals, lonely, and like the last leaf of autumn lingering behind. You’ll be interested to know that I taught school for more than fifty years, and yours is the first note of appreciation I ever received. It came on a blue, cold morning, and it cheered me as nothing has done in many years.  Ask God to put someone on your heart…someone who has been a blessing in your life and give/mail him/her a note. This could be a parent, child, sibling, pastor, teacher, neighbor, or old friend.

For more help see our New Life Perspectives CD: A Thankful Heart.