“Rejoice always; pray without ceasing; in everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 NASB
For the month of November, in my Wednesday night Bible study, we will be focusing on being thankful. Being thankful seems to get easier the more that we do it, so I want my students to be on the look-out for things they are thankful for. I came up with this “Thankfulness Chart” to help them keep track of those items throughout the month.
- Download calendar/chart and letter to parents
- Download the November calendar blank for years beyond 2013
Here’s how it works:
– Each student will get a Thankfulness Chart to take home. This will be accompanied by a parent note so that the parents can help keep their child working on it and bringing it back each week.
– They will need to keep it in a place where they will see it everyday.
– Throughout each day, they will be hunting for things/people/situations that they are thankful for and they will write them down on that day of the calendar. I will be working on one too.
– Each time we have class, they will need to bring their chart with them.
– During class each week, we will be talking about what was written on the charts and counting up how many, as a class, we wrote down.
Now enters the Thankfulness Chain. This will be just a simple paper chain that we will be hanging up in the classroom.
– For each item that was written down on our charts, we will add one link to the chain.
– Hang up the Thankfulness Chain in the classroom for all to see. By the end of the month, it will hopefully be really long.
This simple activity will keep thankfulness in the fore-front of our minds this month. As you will hopefully come to find out that the more you and your students think about things to write down on your charts, the easier it will become to think that way.
“Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things.”
Philippians 4:8 NASB