We all need encouragement and the best place to go is to the Bible.
In this blog Post I have tried to gather some Bible passages or Bible verses which will encourage about Thanksgiving
I do believe that we should not just grab a verse and read it on its own but we should always lift our bibles and read a passage of scripture to make sure that we know the real meaning and context of each of the verses we are putting our trust in.
I pray that you will do the same and only use this list to guide you as to where you may find help.
So here are 10 Bible verses or short passages for us to read and consider about Thanksgiving
1. Colossians 3 v 16 - 17
“Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.
And whatever you do in word or deed do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus giving thanks to God the Father through Him”
Such a great 2 verses that cover thankfulness within us and then that thankfulness flowing out to God.
2. 1 Thessalonians 5 v 16 - 18
“Rejoice evermore, pray without ceasing,
in everything give thanks;
for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.”
This passage is brief and to the point with 3 exhortations to us about things we should do and look it has always been God's will for us to be thankful in everything!
3. Ephesians 5 v 20
“giving thanks always and for everything to God”
Just in case we didn't get the full message in the previous verse this one points out the always as well as in everything - no excuses!
4. Colossians 2 v 6 - 7
“As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, rooted and built up in him, and established in the faith as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving.”
When we are following Jesus thanksgiving is very important because it part of the process of walking with Him and in faith.
5. Jonah 2 v 9
“But I will sacrifice to You with the voice of thanksgiving;
I will pay what I have vowed.
Salvation is of the Lord.”
Sacrifice may be hard for us but we are still instructed to remain thankful in this act of obedience.
6. 1 Chronicles 16 v 34
“Oh give thanks to the LORD, for He is good;
for His steadfast love endures forever!”
His goodness to us and His love for us should always be on our minds and we must be forever thankful to God for these great attributes.
7. Philippians 1 v 3 - 4
“I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine making request for you all with joy.”
We don't just have to thank God for all His attributes but we must remember to thank Him for the others we have along side us in our Christian Walk?
8. Philippians 4 v 6 - 7
"Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God."
So often we can get caught up with the needs of ourselves, family, friends, church and others that we forget to thank God in our prayers but they must not centre around petitions all the time but rather on God and how He is faithful to answer our prayers.
9. Colossians 3 v 15
"Let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body; and be thankful."
Allowing God to give us His peace and rest should bring thankful expressions from us.
10. 2 Corinthians 9 v 15
"Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!"
We have so many things to be thankful to God for but we must never forget that the greatest of these is the Gift of His Son the Lord Jesus Christ to die in our place.
We all need encouragement and the best place to go is to the Bible.
In this blog Post I have tried to gather some Bible passages or Bible verses which will encourage us all around the topic of God's Blessings.
I do believe that we should not just grab a verse and read it on its own but we should always lift our bibles and read a passage of scripture to make sure that we know the real meaning and context of each of the verses we are putting our trust in.
I pray that you will do the same and only use this list to guide you as to where you may find help.
So here are 10 Bible verses or short passages for us to turn to in times when we need to be encouraged to think about
Blessings
1. Numbers 6 v 24-26
When I think of a Godly blessing this is the one that comes to mind as I have great memories of singing this in the church I grew up in each time a child was baptized.
"The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make His face shine upon you and be gracious to you.
The Lord lift up His countenance upon you and give you peace."
2. Psalm 1 v 1
Blessing comes when we are upright in heart, mind and action.
"Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly,
nor standeth in the way of sinners,
nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.
But his delight is in the law of the Lord;
and in his law doth he meditate day and night.
And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water,
that bringeth forth his fruit in his season;
his leaf also shall not wither;
and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper."
3. Ephesians 1 v 3
What more could we want but to be blessed by God and be able to praise and honour Him.
"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ."
4. Psalm 34 v 8
Trusting in God leads to blessing.
“Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good; Blessed is the man who trusts in Him!”
5. John 20 v 29
We have not seen Jesus in person but we must remember that we are not any less blessed because of this.
"Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed."
6. 1 Peter 3 v 9
Receiving blessing and blessing others goes hand in hand.
"Finally all of you be of one mind, having compassion for one another; love as brothers, be tenderhearted, be courteous; not returning evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary blessing, knowing that you were called to this, that you may inherit a blessing."
7. 2 Corinthians 9 v 8
We are not just blessed to receive something for ourselves but to know the blessing of being in the position to bless others as well.
"And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work."
8. Psalm 29 v 11
Who is greater than the Lord to bless us
"The Lord sat enthroned at the flood, and the Lord sits as King forever. The Lord will give strength to His people; the Lord will bless His people with peace."
9. Isaiah 30 v 18
The Lord is the one who determines when and how He blesses us
"And therefore will the Lord wait, that He may be gracious to you, and therefore will He be exalted, that He may have mercy upon you: for the Lord is a God of judgement: blessed are all they that wait for Him."
10. Psalm 32 v 1
On a final note the greatest blessing of all that is freely given
to us - sins forgiven
"Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven,
whose sin is covered."
You can download this Free Printable of the graphics of these verses HERE
then you probably need some good ideas for things to do
when face timing or on a Zoom call with your grandchildren.
If So
THEN
This is the place to find 10 Easy Ideas that you can do to have fun & interesting Facetime calls or Zoom meetings.
Let's face it when we are having to facetime our young grandkids so often instead of visiting them or having them round to our homes we can't just talk to them.
Our grandchildren are used to being interactive with us each time they are with us and they will feel such a difference when they feel they can only talk or show us a picture they have drawn or a model they have made with their lego. We will feel it hard to ask them questions all the time or try to tell them what we have been doing when we have hardly been outside our homes.
Hence we have had to adjust our thinking and we came up with several ideas to do in our face times which usually last for 45 minutes - not too short not too long - we all want to enjoy our time together.
1. Hunt the Bear
Of course it doesn't have to be a bear, it can be any cuddly toy that the kids love.
We have a little cuddly toy bear that is called Charmin because it came free with Charmin toilet roll many years ago.
This bear sits on the window sill of our bathroom just as it sat on the window sill of our small toilet in our home in Belgium from 2004 to 2010.
The idea of hiding Charmin started when our son (who had remained in Northern Ireland when we moved to Belgium) would come to visit and we would hide the bear and one of the first things he had to do was hunt the house to find Charmin.
Now I hide Charmin before facetiming our grandkids (his children) and they have to tell their grandpa where to take them to look.
One time Charmin was hiding under the duvet cover on the Daybed in the room the kids would sleep in when they come to sleepover at our house.
The last time he was hiding behind a photo frame that holds a picture of our three children when they were young.
Of course you can hide the same thing each time or a different thing each time.
2. Drawing Objects
I decided to try to learn how to draw cartoon type animals and objects and had sent for a book to learn from so now when we are face timing I draw what I have learned and they have to guess what it is.
So far I have drawn - dogs, cars, trees, buildings, cats, rabbits, flowers and a knight in armour.
Example:
The first time, Ruby guessed my dog and then wanted a another dog so I drew it slightly differently.
Matthew guessed my car and even knew the longer one was a Limo.
If you want to know just how easy it is drawing these dogs and cars you can see me drawing them in the video below.
Here is a picture of the book I had bought to learn from
We received a lovely personalised jigsaw for Christmas from our daughter-in-law.
It was based on a photo taken the day our third grandchild Sarah was born so it consists of Fred and I and the 3 grandchildren.
We thought this would be a good choice to start with.
We started it off by doing the outline of the jigsaw but leaving out some of the pieces and then on the face time we got the kids to tell us where each of the pieces would fit in to finish the outline.
They were both good at that and soon the outline was completed.
The next face time they helped us do some of the faces, etc.
You can do the same with one of their jigsaws that they have done before or buy some new ones that are based on things that interest the kids.
I was very fortunate earlier this year to find this Portapuzzle on a Facebook Marketplace where I only paid £10 for it and it is in such good condition - hardly used at all.
It zips up round your jigsaws and holds them in tight so that you can move them around so easily.
It is well padded and has two mats.
We used one mat for holding this jigsaw and the other for placing on top while we had it sitting on the table in the sun room before the facetime calls.
When I am working on a larger jigsaw I can do it on one half of the open Portapuzzle and the mats can be used to sort the pieces.
I can not see it on Amazon - although there are several solutions there but mostly roll up or very expensive similar versions of the one pictured above.
In between face times you can ask the children if they could make a nice picture or card for you using stickers and drawing things you like and this would be like giving them a topic or theme.
They could then post their creations to you or show you on your next face time together and it gives you something to thank them for and show your appreciation to them which is so good for kids.
Matthew and Ruby did some for us and posted them to us.
I like hearts and butterflies and Matthew had in the past helped Fred to put together a Pirate Ship which he plays with at our house.
Some drawing and colouring and stickers on the outside and then there were more on the inside.
You could even buy them some new stickers and post them off so that they could use them for your pictures.
5. Learning a New Song
Most kids love to learn songs and then they can pass a longish car journey singing at the top of their lungs.
We have always loved doing kids songs for church so it was very natural for us to want to teach our children and grandchildren lots of kids songs.
You can see some examples of Kid's Songs on the Kids Resources Page on this blog
We have even done some hand washing videos teaching some songs that are at least 20 secs long. You can see them at Kids Songs for Hand Washing
Of course you can always get the kids to teach you a new song too.
And don't forget it's more fun if there are actions involved
Here are some Song Book & CD suggestions on Amazon
Another things kids love to do is listen to their grandparents reading books to them.
You don't even have to get any new books just use their old favourites that you would read to them at other times.
I had got a book I was intending to review and I like to include Matthew and Ruby in my reviews so we just went ahead and Fred read it to them over face time while I tried to video him, the book and the kids.
You can see the result in the video below:
Ruby was the one who really wanted a story this time and Matthew had decided he wanted to draw a picture for us but if you watch the ipad you will see he was just as interested as Ruby but didn't need to stick his face right up to the screen.
8. Quizes
You can do a quiz based on a different theme each time you want to do a quiz.
Try to think of types of Quizes that would suit your grandchildren (this will differ greatly because of ages)
Example:
Matthew would like something based on cars or dinosaurs
Ruby would like something based on clothes or butterflies.
However I always find that kids love to guess answers to anything.
I like to have some simple number cards ready to for scoring a quiz.
To make simple numbered score cards:
cut out several squares of card all the same colour and size
write a number on one side of the cards*
leave the backs of the cards blank
* usually a variety of just the numbers between 1 and 5 should be used - easy to add up,
These squares of card act as scores for when they answer correctly, keep them turned face down on the table and the children choose the card they want.
I had these round craft pricing cards lying in a box in the craft armoire - they had been there for a few years so they were ideal for me to use.
Perhaps another time the grandkids could make up some questions and you have to see if you know the answers.
9. Memory Boxes
Do you have a memory box?
If you do or if you keep a picture diary or if you have a little memory scrapbook then why not show the kids a few items or pictures or pages and tell them about why these things are special.
Then you can encourage the children to start memory boxes of their own.
Below is one of my memory boxes - maybe I'll put all the contents into a scrapbook sometime!
10. Playing Games
You may not be in the same room or the same house but you can still play games together.
Matthew and Ruby love playing games whenever we are together so they can still enjoy playing short games with us on face time.
Just be careful which types of games you chose to play, not to long and not too involved, simple games are better in this situation.
Pen and paper games are probably the easiest to start with such as X & O's or hangman so having some notebooks at hand will be a good idea.
I love the large A4 size notebooks I get from The Works Website and I use them for everything I want to write down.
This is the notebook I used to write down all the ideas I had for what I wanted to do during the lockdown time.
Other ideas for individual games to play together are available in another post on this blog
