We started this several years ago and loved it so much we left it through the holiday season. During this season, I wanted my kids to focus on our blessings each day. I wanted us to focus on more of those little blessings that we take for granted. The blessings that if they were taken away would affect us greatly. Like quiet moments reading out loud or the blessing of a dog who snuggles on my lap.
I Thess 5:18 says, “in everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” It is God’s will that we are to give thanks. To help remind us, I got window markers and drew a tree without leaves on our sliding glass door and put this verse on it. Each day we each put one “leaf” on the tree with the thing that we are thankful for. By the end of the month, the tree is quite full and we can count our blessings one by one. I can also point a kid to the tree when they are being unthankful or greedy. It is a great visual reminder of the countless blessing God gives us. As a bonus, the kids love to draw on the window!
Last winter, I painted our pantry doors with brown chalkboard paint because there’s always room for one more chalkboard. So, for this year’s Thanksgiving Tree, I drew the tree on the pantry doors. I love it there as it is more prominent and is more of a visual focus in our kitchen and family rooms. I find that when we focus on our blessings, our attitudes are much better and we don’t tend to focus on the annoying or negative aspects of our day.
Categories: parenting