Thoughts About Giving Thanks

Posted by Martha & Greg Singleton , Saturday, November 22, 2008 2:52 AM


I believe that Thanksgiving may be my favorite holiday of the year. And, it’s not just about the food and the football, even though that, alone, is enough to put a smile on my face. Our house has always been a gathering place at Thanksgiving. Family and friends stop by during the day, and, together, we acknowledge that God has really been good to us all. We always have a houseful, coming and going from morning until midnight. All ages and all races and nationalities are represented in our home that day, with one common, overriding theme. It may not be stated in so many words, but there’s an atmosphere there that’s undeniable. We’re blessed.

I wanted to take some time and space here to express some random thoughts and ideas about my favorite time of the year.

Being Thankful
Your mom was right – always say “please” and “thank you.” Whether she realized it or not though, that seemingly insignificant act has far more impact than simply socially acceptable behavior. Developing a thankful heart, as well as an attitude of ungratefulness, is a habit. So, fill your home with thankfulness! It starts with Mom and Dad – saying “please,” “thank you,” and “you’re welcome.” Then declare it to be a family trait - “Our family expresses thanks!” Expressions of thankfulness are like the reins and the bridle in the horse’s mouth. They will turn the tide of attitude in your home.

"So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in Him, rooted and built up in Him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness."
Colossians 2:6-7 (NIV)

How Many Ways To Worship?
One activity you can try with your family is to discover every way you can think of to worship God. Almost any age group can participate in this exercise that expands your family’s concept of worship. And it can be a project that stretches over an extended period of time, because, in reality, there are limitless responses to this. Feel free to allow your kids to use their imaginations.

The book of Psalms is the perfect place to teach your children what worship looks like and sounds like. Give your family the assignment to search through the entire book in order to prompt them to find all the different ways to worship. The list in almost inexhaustible, and offers such a variety of postures and practices that anyone can find something that’s a comfortable expression for them – be still, sing, shout, clap your hands, stand, sit, lie down, leap, and on and on. For school age children, the visual of writing all the responses on butcher paper or posterboard makes a real impact.

The Thanksgiving Tradition
The original Thanksgiving dinner began with each person having seven kernels of corn on his or her plate, to commemorate the time of famine when that was all each colonist had to eat each day for months…after eating those, they gave thanks for God’s bountiful blessing, and began the feast. Why not make that a tradition that reminds us of the abundance of God’s goodness? Or, go around the table with each person offering a sentence prayer thanking God for something they are specifically, especially thankful for.

If you have any meaningful Thanksgiving traditions in your home, we’d love for you to share them with us. You can tell us about them in the comments here, or, for you more private types, you can email us at MarthaandGreg@aol.com. Have a blessed Thanksgiving weekend!

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The Apron

Posted by Martha & Greg Singleton , Wednesday, November 12, 2008 11:05 AM

It’s a faded brown gingham apron, hand-stitched, trimmed with a ribbon and a row of equally faded pinkish ric-rac. They say she never was without her apron, and sure enough, the photo I have shows her wearing a similar one as she stands beside her husband in a field, looking stoically at the camera in the fashion of her day.
Her life was more difficult than I can fathom. Her husband was a circuit-riding preacher, and, with their eight children, they moved from place to place, wherever he was needed, picking cotton on other people’s land, eating and sleeping and living in temporary houses borrowed from other people for the length of their stay.
She was a tiny woman, under five feet tall, weighing about 85 pounds, but she drug the huge sack, weighing more than she did by the time it was full of cotton, behind her as she worked her way up and down the rows in the sun. Singing.
My husband’s great grandmother, Nettie Stiewig, worked hard laboring in the fields, helped educate her children, cooked meals, did laundry, and somehow found time to create some of the most exquisite embroidered and crocheted linens I have ever seen.
But the story of her life, the one thing that I really know about her, is that she sang.
Up and down the rows, back bent, fingers raw to the point of bleeding, she worked in the heat and the dust with her husband and children toiling nearby.
But instead of complaining about the work, or wishing she could express her homemaker’s artistic heart in a house of her own, Grandma sang joyful, unending hymns to the Savior she loved.
In doing so, she left a legacy that lives still in the hearts of four generations after her.
We’ve been talking a lot in our Sunday School class about our personal stories, and how they are part of God’s big, eternal story. We all want to do that One Great Thing for Jesus, and wonder if, should the opportunity arise, we will recognize it, and be up for the challenge. Sometimes I think that One Great Thing may not be that obvious, even to ourselves, as we somehow trudge from day to day, task to task, waiting for “Something” to happen..
But when I see that apron, where I have lovingly hung it in my kitchen, I hear the message of her life, still powerful in the heart of a great-granddaughter-in-law who never even met her.
My work, through all the little moments and tasks of life, becomes worship when my heart is full of praise to Him.
The apron touches me, and fills me with the hope that the memory of my life which will echo through the generations after me will be the same as hers: “She worshipped Jesus while she worked. She sang.”

Martha

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