I saw this post over at Simply Vintage Girl and absolutely fell in love with the idea of visibly counting our blessings for a month. And what a beautiful way to include the entire family. So I set out to create a Thankful Tree. Gathered branches from our yard. Removed all leaves and placed the bare branches into a ceramic pitcher to hold our many Thanks as we count down to Thanksgiving. Next I had to prepare scraps of paper for each member of the family {sans baby} to hang on our Thankful Tree.
When Thanksgiving Day arrives and we each place our last thankful notes upon the tree the branches will be weighed down with at least one hundred forty four scraps of gratitude. Only a taste of how full our hearts will are with thankfulness for all He has blessed us with.
There is one lone branch that is set aside within our pitcher as the ‘hard eucharisteo’ branch. That branch will hold our thanks for the blessings that are difficult for us to be thankful for but because we follow Him we know to give thanks in all things because He works them all to His good.
Each day we all take a new circle and write our thanks. The children are absolutely giddy to write a new eucharisteo each day. We ask the ones who don’t know yet how to write what they are thankful for. My toddler has sweetly replied ‘apples’ for one day and ‘bananas’ for another. So innocent and makes my heart joyful to hear her. She truly knows how to be thankful for everything.
It’s never too late to be thankful. Count your blessings and encourage your family members to join in. Even those who join you around the Thanksgiving table this year. When a friend stops by ask them if they would like to participate in this new tradition. Be thankful in ALL things.
Rejoice always, pray without ceasing,
give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.
{1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 ESV}
Blessings!
