Note: My new book, “My Thinking Book”, has just been released. It is a daily devotional book for children. Check out: https://covenantbooks.newswire.com/news/pat-lambs-new-book-my-thinking-book-is-an-enriching-compendium-of-hard-20694242 It is available on my website shown below as well as Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and bookstores throughout the country.
Train up a child—
Help Children be Truly Thankful
It is not easy to achieve a true thankfulness in children when they often do not understand that all they have is because of God. Also, many children, in today’s time, have so many things that they do not understand what it means to do without, and the blessings they have are often taken for granted. We should, therefore, make sure that children understand that the holiday of Thanksgiving is for the purpose of being thankful to our Creator for our many blessings. Secondly, we need to help children identify what their blessings are in order to be thankful for them.
There have been many good books written about the holiday we are about to observe. We are fortunate, in our area, to have an excellent library where many books are available for parents to read to children, or for the children to read for themselves. The first chapter of the book of Genesis in the Bible is a good chapter to read to children to let them know of God’s creation. When children are told that God created everything, they are apt to say something like, “Did God make cars, too?” It needs to be explained that God made the things that are used in making the cars, like the metal, and he also gave man the knowledge to invent them.
Once children understand the source of their blessings, they need to identify those blessings. One way to help children be aware of their helpful conveniences is to play a “hide and thank” game. Each day the parents could take one thing that is important to the children and hide it until the child misses it. Keep it hidden long enough to let the child experience the inconvenience of not having it; then, give it to the child and say something like, “I’ll bet you are thankful that you have _______!” After a few days of this, the children catch on to the fact that they have many things to be thankful for. It has been said that “We never miss the water until the well runs dry.” That is probably true and the idea applies to many more things than just water. I’m not sure it is possible to be truly thankful unless we know what it is to do without.
Our country has experienced many tragedies in the recent years. Many people involved in those tragedies had perhaps never known what it was like to do without many of the things we take for granted each day. We need to teach our children to not only be thankful for what we have, but to be prepared to do without many of those things. We have no guarantee that we will have them the rest of our lives. Those of us who lived during the Great Depression know that it is possible to survive on much less than most of us enjoy at this time. We have much for which to be thankful. Let us pattern the example of thankfulness for our children. Just as we expect people to be thankful for any gift we may give them, God also expects us to be thankful for the gifts he gives to us.
patlee@centurytel.net
www.patlambchristianauthor.com