God Help Me Raise Thankful KidsSample

Count Your Blessings, Name Them One By One

Each of the ten men in our passage today came to Jesus with the hope of being healed. Jesus sent them to the priest and as they went, they were healed of their leprosy. All of them walked away cleansed, but only one turned back to praise Jesus for his healing.

God desires that we come to Him with our thanksgiving. It’s an attitude we are called to learn. May we be like that one man who returned to express his gratefulness to Jesus.

How often do you remind your kids to say, “thank you”? Probably numerous times a day, right? What would happen if we remind our kids to thank God as often as we remind them to say “thank you”? As we provide consistent reminders, thankfulness will become a consistent response. The more we practice thankfulness together with our kids, the more naturally it will flow from our grateful hearts.

Psalm 107:1 says, “Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever.”

Suggested Prayer:

God, I want to be like the one man who returned to thank Jesus. I want to see Your hand in everyday life events and remember to thank You. May I teach my children this quality too. We want to be thankful today. Amen.

Activity Ideas:

• Encourage each person in your family to make a list of things they are thankful for—one thing for each year they have been alive. If you want to make it even harder for the older kids and adults, restrict the list to only things that are free (i.e. sunshine, hope, mountains).
• Create a thankfulness scavenger hunt. Ask children to take photos of things they are thankful for.
• Design a family “Blessing Book” out of a notebook or journal. Each night for 1 month, record a list of your blessings.