Expressing Thanks on Thanksgiving Day

Most of us will spend Thanksgiving Day with people we love and care about as we celebrate the holiday. There will be talk of family, friends, issues of the day, and football (especially since the New England Patriots are playing the Detroit Lions!..... Go Patriots!) Almost everyone will take some time during the day to reflect on the many things they have to be thankful for; but, interestingly, for many of us those expressions will remain in our thoughts and will not be given voice.

Giving expression to the things we are thankful for refreshes our soul, reminds us of God’s blessings, and causes others to remember the good things in their lives. So we wanted to offer a few suggestions on how you might plan to get the people at your Thanksgiving Table to share the things they are thankful for.

- If you are at a home with children you may want to have the children cut out paper turkeys or fall leaves for every guest (and for themselves). As the guests arrive ask them to take a cutout and write their name on one side. On the other side ask them to write down one thing that they are thankful for from the past year. Collect the cutouts and use them as name cards for each place setting. When everyone comes to the table ask those who are comfortable to read what they had written down.

- Get a large poster board or piece of paper and place it on the refrigerator or some other convenient place where all will see it. Across the top in big letters write “The Things We Thankful for Today.” As the guests arrive, invite them to write down something they are thankful for over the course of the day. Monitor the board and encourage others to both write something and to read what others have written.

- At some point during the meal address the people sitting at the table and say “Today is Thanksgiving and I would like to share with you something that I am very thankful for today.” Give some thought to what you are going to say (write it down if you need to) and tell everyone what you are thankful for. When you are finished say, “I would enjoy hearing what some of you are thankful for today.” Then just go on with the meal and see if anyone wants to join in the sharing.

There are probably lots of ideas that can help us all get over that initial nervousness and actually share with each other what we are thankful for. If you have never had this experience you are missing one of the greatest joys of any Thanksgiving meal. Feel free to create your own Thanksgiving Day conversation starter.

We pray that you will have a wonderful Thanksgiving Day and trust that you will see and give voice to those things in your life that are truly worthy of thankfulness.

 

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