Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” (1 Thessalonians 5:18) There is misunderstanding around this verse by some who take it to mean that we are to be thankful for all circumstances, but the text actually says to be thankful IN all circumstances. That is a noticeable difference. We might not be thankful for all the hard things that happen each day, but we can still be thankful in the hard moments. We can still acknowledge that God is good, God has given us many blessings in the midst of the hard days, and that our salvation remains sure in Jesus even when this world seems to get the better of us. We can use our times of giving thanks as opportunities to talk about God and shape faith as we are charged to do in Deuteronomy 6:6-7:

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the way, when you lie down and when you get up.”

Here are some ideas for how we can talk about thankfulness and point our families to God as we return our thanks to Him for all that He’s given to us:

• Thank You Post-Its-Take a pad of small sized post-it notes and write or draw one thing you’re thankful for per sheet. Challenge yourselves to go beyond the “big” and ordinary things that we frequently list. Find a big open wall space or window to stick all the notes onto. If you can, continue this practice for several days. When complete, talk about all the multitude of things that your family is thankful for.
• Table Turns-Go around the table and list things you’re thankful for—at the Thanksgiving meal or anytime. (You could even begin to make this a daily practice in your home.) Return thanks to God for all the things you come up with.
• Highs/Lows-Take turns sharing your highs and lows of the day with. List things you can be thankful for in each high and each low. The highs will be easy, but try to take the hard things from a day and see how you can be thankful for certain parts of those things too. This may take some creative thinking and extra guidance on parents’ part. Model it with your own lows. Spend time in prayer of thanksgiving for all you came up with.  
• The Giver & Receiver-Sometimes we forget that God is the giver of everything we have. Yes, it’s “our” money and “our” stuff but God is the ultimate provider of it all as He is the source of all we have. We are merely the very blessed receivers. See if you can point out together a long list of things that God has provided (gifts, groceries, electricity, water, etc.). Talk about how cool it is that everything we receive comes to us from God by way of lots of other people who make it and sell it and give it to us.

As you and your family go about this month, think about ways you can foster giving thanks to God in all circumstances and point to Him as the giver of all good things that we have.