Happy Thanksgiving Week. Hit me up if you are still in need of recipes and you just don’t know what to cook for Thursday’s big meal. Normal life this week and I’m thankful for that.
Chicken Ramen Salad
Thick-sliced Turkey BLT
Homemade Applesauce (so much better than store bought)
Tuna Salad
November, already? Wow – there is less than two months left in 2014. And we always look forward to January – fresh, clean, new year. I love January for many reasons, but November is a good month too.
I was inspired by a popular secular DIY/Lifestyle blog to think about ways to journal in November. This month is easy to make a list of ways we are grateful, etc – but I think the art and practice of journaling may help make the list-making more of a heart-turning-to-gratitude making.
1. Remember. What has the Lord done for you this year. Even if you can think about over the course of the last 10 months and journal about what God has done for you and your family. This year has been extremely hard for our family and I’ve seen the Lord bring much healing. He is good. The book of Deuteronomy specializes in the word Remember – so maybe journal through that book and connect the dots. The God of the Old Testament is the God of your heart, too.
2. Thanks and Giving. Search these two words in the Bible. See how often we are to give out of gratitude. Give out of blessing. Give even out of need. One of the disciplines I’m trying to teach my older right now is to share. And I heard a friend teaching her son yesterday that we share because God has been kind to us and we are to share with others. Really, sharing and showing kindness and giving to another is a way we display the image of God in which we are created. Just jot a note in a journal or in your ESV Journaling Bible where these words show up. Pray the Spirit would help you cultivate a heart full of gratitude and selfless living with time and possessions.
3. Hospitality. She Reads Truth is a great daily devotional plan that is online. I’ve loved it and it is especially helpful for me who lives by my iphone, can read anything through my ESV App – listen to it if I’m on the road, and is perfect for getting me in the Word during a busy season of life. And how many of us plan to host people in our homes or attend a function in another’s home this holiday season? This is a timely study – that you can get and read and journal through to cultivate a heart of joyful welcoming.
How do you journal? Do you use your Bible or do you use a notebook?
Thanksgiving is more than a great sweet potato pie. And dressing. And turkey. And football and Macy’s parade.
I have read and re-read Noel Piper’s Treasuring God in Our Traditions. I especially find it more meaningful now that we have children and I have a family of my own. So, I wanted to start early at incorporating traditions that our rooted in the Gospel at every holiday.
Thanksgiving is one of the easiest holidays to incorporate a heart and attitude of Thanksgiving. Not just one where you say grace before the meal, but one where you stop to think of all the ways you have been extremely blessed by God the Father through the Son.
Romans 8:32 says it great when it declares that God – having given us Jesus – how will he not also give us all things – freely – graciously – for our good and his glory (that’s the KCV – Kimberly Campbell version).
So, even though my boys didn’t have much say-so in what went on our Thanksgiving garland this year – I thought of the family, not just myself, and made a Thanksgiving garland.
Supplies:
Yarn
Glue
Glitter
Construction Paper
Scissors
Pen
I cut out the form of a leaf (because of the fall) on to fall-colored construction paper. Then cut them out. I then wrote on each of them (30) one thing that we were thankful for. Traced the leaf in glue then sprinkled it with glitter.
As the boys get older I want them to contribute the things they are thankful for, and hopefully instill in them a heart of gratitude!
What traditions do you have in your family?
Thanksgiving – a time to eat, right? And a time to be grateful!
I always love trying new recipes at big meals – when else are you going to try them?
So, here it what will be on our table come Thursday! Glad my parents are in town to watch the boys and chop veggies!
For the Turkey: Closet Cooking’s Herb Roasted Turkey Breast
For the Sides:
The Pioneer Woman’s Balsamic Roasted Brussel Sprouts with Cranberries
Green salad
Green Bean Casserole (as a request by my husband)
Black Pepper Buttermilk Biscuits
Carrot Souffle recipe by my friend Lindsay
Dessert:
Joy the Baker’s Sweet Potato Pie (with cool whip of course)
Disney has some great movies that are accompanied by some equally wonderful music. The Little Mermaid is a favorite and I heard many songs from the soundtrack as I was trying to calm my baby today.
As I was listening to this song, I thought poorly of my “sour” attitude lately, as I pondered these lyrics:
Look at this stuff, isn’t it neat
Wouldn’t you think my collection’s complete?
Wouldn’t you think I’m the girl
The girl who has everything?
I mean so I don’t get my way in everything nor is my opinion always taken freely and readily changed to my every whim…but so what?
I have Jesus.
I have an amazing husband who lives out Eph 5 for me, for our boys.
I have a wonderful amazing joyful Elijah-Bean (my nickname for him right now). He makes me smile!
I have a sweet cuddly BabyBach who needs to be held a lot to calm his stomach.
I have wonderful friends across this country who rejoice w me, share life with me, cry with me, etc.
So, aren’t I the girl – the girl who has everything?
So, when you are tempted to complain…think of Ariel just longing to be somewhere else, above the waters so blue, and remember that God has given you so many blessings.
As the old hymn line says, “Count your blessings, name them one by one.” And as far as other songs go, my husband picks a Song of the Month for our church and teaches it to the congregation. This month’s is fitting for November but also for everyday: 10000 reasons by Redman. Here is a line: “For all your goodness I will keep on singing, ten thousand reasons for my heart to find.”
How will you count your blessings this Thanksgiving season? How will you help your children learn how to count their blessings? More on that coming in a creative post soon! 🙂
In light of Thanksgiving:
“Through common grace God reveals His love to all people, though not in a saving way. God’s common grace includes the water we drink, food we eat, sun we enjoy, and rain we need.”
(Mark Driscoll, Doctrine, pg 39)
My friend, Jennifer, over at Cornerstone Church of Knoxville (fabulous Sovereign Grace church, if I had to live in Volunteer country – this is where I would go) asked me to guest post for their singles’ blog for Thanksgiving. Here it is: enjoy!
Thanksgiving. Publix commercials of big turkeys perfectly roasted and stuffed with bounty from gardens (or the grocery store). Football games and parades on television. Long-lost relatives offering much advice on the state of our dating lives (or the lack there of). Most of us cook or eat way too much food only to nap on the couch and eat more for dinner. Unfortunately, the “thankful” part is a two-minute grace that we say before the meal. Really? Is that was Thanksgiving boils down to? Don’t we have so much more to be thankful for in our lives than turkey, cranberry sauce, and pecan pie (and the correct pronunciation can be debated by all southerners).
Colossians 3 is a reminder of what our lives should look like in response to the gospel of God in Christ. We can’t live out the end of Colossians 3 unless we start at the beginning of the chapter. Paul exhorts the Colossian believers with this: “If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.” (Colossians 3:1-4) If we claim Christ as our Lord and Savior, then we should be dead to the things of self and flesh. This includes but is not limited to: quarreling (which occurs in most American homes at ALL holidays), ungratefulness (are you really going to argue about who gets the last crescent roll or the turkey leg), and bitterness (are we bitter that we aren’t married YET and may even still be eating at the kiddie table?) Oh, that our hearts may be changed because of the Gospel.
Colossians 3:16 tells us how we should live our lives in light of being raised with Christ. Hint: the gospel should compel us to live like this: “Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly, admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.” This doesn’t mean that we have to break out in songs as we pass each other on the street, in the church, or in our homes. But, the gospel should set the tone for our hearts and our lips. The Gospel has provided us so much. We were dead; but, God. God showed his immeasurable goodness and grace to us by sending His Son to save ungrateful people who cared nothing for the things of God. We now have the opportunity to sit and dine with the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, with the Bread of Life, with the Living Water.
As we sit down to the Thanksgiving table with family and friends this November, let us remember that we deserve death. We don’t even deserve a turkey, or ham, or stuffing, or a home, or anything. But, in God’s kindness we can sit and dine with friends and family and have way more than we ever should have. Let our hearts and minds and lips reflect the goodness of our precious and abundantly-giving gracious Father who saved us in Christ.