• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

BJU Press Blog

  • Home
  • Shop
    • Shaping Worldview
  • Simplified Homeschool
  • Successful Learning

giving thanks

The Prepositions of Thankfulness

November 24, 2016 by Eileen

About two months ago, I bought a small throw pillow for a chair in my home. The pillow displayed the word thankful in large gold letters. I had a mission for that pillow. Every time I walked by the chair, the pillow would remind me to think of things I was thankful for. My plan worked for a few days. I would walk past the chair and briefly consider one or two pleasant things that had happened that day. But all too soon, the pillow became both literally and figuratively part of the furniture. I had happened to choose the chair where everything tends to land at the end of the day—my purse, a book or two, the mail, and so on. And as the days passed, my plan got covered up by the busyness of life, just like the word on that pillow.

thankful pillow

The other day, after clearing off the chair, I sat looking at the pillow and thinking about my plan gone awry. That’s when I realized that maybe the plan had been tragically flawed from the beginning. After all, it’s not enough to be thankful for without being, first and foremost, thankful to. My hastily muttered prayers of thanks for this and that blessing as I dash past a pillow are not really what God wants. He wants me to sit down and take time. He doesn’t necessarily want me to tabulate all the ways He has added pleasantness to my life. But He does want me to know Him and thank Him for who He is. He wants me to love the Giver infinitely more than the gifts.

It’s only when I’m being thankful to that I can properly be thankful for. When I’ve taken time to meditate on God’s sovereignty, love, goodness, and wisdom, I can filter everything that happens to me through the lens of His attributes. I can rest my head on a pillow of thankfulness—even when the burdens and problems of life multiply or when nothing about my day stands out as a singular blessing. I can be thankful for anything that draws me closer to the God I am thankful to.

Look for ways you can be Sharing God’s Good Works with your children.

Filed Under: Shaping Worldview Tagged With: Giver, giving thanks, God's sovereignty, thankful

Linking Up for Thanksgiving

November 19, 2015 by Meredith

Every year when Thanksgiving comes, we often ask each other the question, “What are you thankful for?” But I like the point Nancy Leigh DeMoss makes in her book Choosing Gratitude that it’s not about the what but the Who. As a Christian, I have the blessing of knowing the One to whom my thanks is directed. Everything I have and everyone I know is a direct result of His guidance in my life. Here are four ways to make Thanksgiving more meaningful for you and your family.

4 Ways to Make Thanksgiving Meaningful from the BJU Press blog

1. Rejoice in God’s blessings by meditating on the words of these Scripture passages or studying well-known thanksgiving hymns.

  • Psalm 100
  • Philippians 4:4–7
  • Find eight Scriptures for a Heart of Thanksgiving in “The Heart of Thanksgiving PIE” from Hip Homeschool Moms

2. Reflect on the Thanksgiving holiday with these articles.

  • What’s the Best Thanksgiving Harvest?
  • A Pilgrim’s Thanksgiving
  • The Pilgrims and God’s Providence an excerpt from Faith of our Fathers: Scenes from American Church History
Thanksgiving table decorations

3. Use table decorations to share the good news.

4. Review these recipes and choose ones easy enough your kids can prepare for the celebration meal.

  • Food, Friends, and Family make a great combination
  • Thanksgiving Recipes from friends of BJU Press

Have a blessed Thanksgiving!

Filed Under: Successful Learning Tagged With: activities, blessings, family, giving thanks, history, Thanksgiving

An Eternal Thanksgiving

November 27, 2013 by Cosette

“Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls.” (Habakkuk 3:17)

Taken alone, this passage would appear to be nothing more than a sad lament because we see a list of scarcities. But it takes a different tone in verse 18, to end on an immensely uplifting note. Its determined author concludes—“Yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation.”

words to Habakkuk 3:18

Through the ages, untold millions have drawn comfort from these verses, regarding them as the undying melody in the patient sufferer’s heart. They remind us that although temporal blessings may ebb and flow, our rejoicing need not. Our thanksgiving—rooted in the past, the present, and the future—is truly eternal.

We can trace the Lord’s mercies to us long before our birth. Just thinking of all the variables involved in assuring that climactic moment overwhelms the mind. Considering the simple fact that we arrived, and then recalling the myriad blessings we have received since, makes our memories treasures that can never be taken from us. We often think of this as one of the great compensations of old age. Where the cache of blessings has swollen to a great store, even the weary can say with the psalmist, “I have been young, and now am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken” (Psalm 37:25). But because all of us have been blessed from birth, our gratitude can begin from the moment we first comprehend God’s goodness.

In the present, we see the blessings of God continually bestowed. His Spirit enables us to meditate on His word and our saving grace in Christ. This strengthens us in the inner man and makes our sensitivity to His daily favor increasingly acute. Even the beleaguered and weeping prophet was able to say “It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not.  They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness” (Lamentations 3:22–23). This work of God’s Spirit assures the survival of Christian faith and is an ever-present cause for thanksgiving, no matter what befalls us day by day.

The lovely Psalm 23 is a litany of blessings in the psalmist’s “present.” David’s grateful acknowledgement throughout pays a rich dividend of assurance at its soaring crescendo. As he looks into the future with a heart overflowing with thanksgiving and confident trust, he exclaims, “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.” Perhaps meditating on the past, and present, fed David’s hopefulness for the future?

Steadfast praise for past, present, and future blessings draws the believer close to the heart of his heavenly Father. As he walks in fellowship with God, his gratitude remains lively even when tangible blessings seem few. His memory of past mercies, his experiences of current graces, and his focus on God’s promises for his future all play a part in the soul-cheering exercise of his eternal thanksgiving.

May you be encouraged this Thanksgiving to reflect on past, present, and future blessings.

Filed Under: Devotions Tagged With: giving thanks

Primary Sidebar

As parents, teachers, or former homeschool students, we are passionate about homeschooling from a biblical worldview. We hope these teaching tips, fun activities, and inspirational stories support you in teaching your children.

Email Signup

Sign up for our homeschool newsletter and receive select blog posts, discounts, and more right to your inbox!

Connect with Us!

                    Instagram     

Read Posts on Specific Subjects

Early Learning
Foreign Language
History
Language Arts
Math
Science

Footer

Disclaimer

The BJU Press blog publishes content by different writers for the purpose of relating to our varied readers. Views and opinions expressed by these writers do not necessarily state or reflect the views of BJU Press or its affiliates. The fact that a link is listed on this blog does not represent or imply that BJU Press endorses its site or contents from the standpoint of ethics, philosophy, theology, or scientific hypotheses. Links are posted on the basis of the information and/or services that the sites offer. If you have comments, suggestions, questions, or find that one of the links no longer works, please contact us.

Pages

  • About BJU Press
  • Conversation Guidelines
  • Terms of Use & Copyright

Archives

© 2023 · BJU Press Homeschool