I love thanksgiving! It’s my favorite holiday. I look forward to our Thanksgiving family traditions more than any of the habits and rituals surrounding the other special family celebrations. But sometimes the holidays are hard, and when families are fractured by sin and addiction we don’t always feel like spending a day giving thanks. The thing is, these are often the most important times for us to make the choice to adjust our attitudes and cultivate a spirit of gratitude, not just in ourselves, but in our families!
So we’ve put together some fun ideas for thanksgiving family traditions that can be special anytime, but become even more important in the hard times.
There are so many praise and thanksgiving scriptures perfect to help us through the holiday season as we seek to align our hearts with a spirit of praise and worship. Here at His Dearly Loved Daughter Ministries, we’re doing a lot to join in and make gratitude our objective. This list of 20 Psalms of thanksgiving and praise is just the beginning!
It’s time to wrap up this Redeeming Thanksgiving series, and begin to prepare our hearts for Christmas. When we started the month out we asked God to set us ablaze with thanksgiving. We laid out the kindling and prepared the wood by committing to this study, and He cultivated that first spark with the promise of restoration. We learned how a thankful heart has the power to redeem for good what the enemy intended for evil. We fed that fire by learning how our gratitude leads to hope which fills us with the joy of the Lord, which is our strength. As the flames of His blessing spread, our praises grew and led us into the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding.
Then, last week, that inferno reached a new height. No longer was it simply spreading God’s blessings throughout our own lives, but it began to consume what didn’t belong. The devouring fire of our God sent the enemy running. Our praises demolished strongholds while reminding us of the ultimate victory, which is as good as won. It is my hope that today, as we conclude this series, the flames of gratitude will blaze from us onto the lives of those still lost and ignite a magnificent explosion of blessing across the whole world!
There is an awesome story in the Bible about what happened when one king decided to praise God, even in the face of certain death. When King Jehoshaphat of Judah led his people with a spirit of thankfulness, the enemy turned and ran. We can learn to do the same thing today!
Several months ago I had the honor of being asked to make a guest appearance over at Faith Beyond Fear. Of course, I was eager to accept, and when we decided on a publication date of last week I realized it would fall right in the middle of our Redeeming Thanksgiving series. So, I decided to tie what I wrote into that topic.
Peace – it’s a “state of being” more coveted than any other. How we all long for peace! We’ve created prestigious prizes to honor those who have contributed to the world’s quest to secure it; but the sad truth is, peace is unattainable through human efforts. No striving, no program, no method will work if they do not include God. It is only His peace, the peace that exceeds anything we can understand that will provide lasting comfort. It is only God’s peace that promises to guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus!
It’s no secret that God wants his people to be joyful. In John 15:11, Jesus tells His disciples, “I have told you these things so that you will be filled with My joy. Yes, your joy will overflow!”
In Galatians 5, joy is listed second, behind only love as a product of the work of the Holy Spirit in the hearts of believers.
But sometimes life just sucks, and it can be really hard to be joyful at those times. Especially when our specific situations start to feel hopeless. So let’s learn how a little bit of thankfulness can help us reclaim our joy!
Thanksgiving has been my favorite holiday for a long time, so when life made this time difficult, I had to learn to redeem what the enemy had broken. So, I’d love it if you’d join me through these weeks leading up to Thanksgiving here at His Dearly Loved Daughter as we focus in on cultivating a heart of thanksgiving. There really is great power in this one little discipline, so we’re going to reclaim what has been broken and hand it over to the Master Builder to be lovingly restored.
I’m doing something a little different today. I was honored to be nominated for the Sunshine Blogger Award by my friend Diane at Worth Beyond…
You guys, God is doing a work in my heart! Jesus is calling to me. I have been processing with Him ever since we got back from our trip to Senegal at the beginning of June. I’ve been almost paralyzed; unable to write because there were just so many thoughts swirling around in my head. I still don’t know exactly what He’s up to, but there are some things I do know, and I’d really love to share them with you.
Redeemed By the Blood – 9 Verses that Celebrate Jesus We are redeemed! Am I right? We have so much to celebrate in our home…
I’ve read the most wonderful book, Nuggets from the Heart, by Rosie Chavez Williams. If you’re looking for something encouraging to read, this is it! It’s a heart-warming compilation of short stories and testimonies from Rosie’s life. All of which point back to our wonderful Savior and His unfailing love and faithfulness.
Drawing inspiration from my favorite Christmas song of all time, we are transported to that holy night of our dear Savior’s birth. We witness the miracle of Immanuel through the eyes of the shepherds, the wise men, and finally, through the wonder of our own eyes!
Last week I shared with you some final stories from our big trip to Africa a little over two months ago, and promised to wrap up the series this week with some final thoughts and take-aways. As I told you last week, we’re about as sure as we can be (without the ability to see the future) that there is a lot more Africa in our future. How, and when that will happen – we have no idea. But we’re trusting God to lead us in His will and in His time. I’m going to close this series now telling you what our kids enjoyed most about the trip, and their biggest take-away, then my love’s most impactful moments and lessons, and finally my own wrap up of the whole thing. I hope you are blessed (as we were) by how God worked.
t’s been a little over two months since our big family trip to western Africa, but it all still seems so fresh! We’re still talking about it almost every day. In fact, just this morning as we were driving our youngest son to school, he asked if we could go back tomorrow. How we wish we could! Apart from missing all the wonderful people we left behind over there, we’ve also had time to process all that God taught us on that amazing trip, and we long for more! God opened our eyes in so many ways. May we keep them open and continue to pursue His purposes surrounding our lives and ministries! I’d like to take this week and next to share a few more stories, and some of our final thoughts to wrap up the Africa 2017 series. God willing, there will be many more Africa visits to come!