Thirty Days of Thanks

I couldn't believe my ears!  Scanning through radio channels on my way to the boys' orthodontist appointments in Ann Arbor, Bruce Springsteen's recognizable, gravelly voice broke through the static.  "Santa Claus is Comin' to Town" worked like a smelling sauce and my abnormally still boys were snapped from their reading trance!  Anakin and the rest of the Star Wars crew were left to fend for themselves and my once quiet library on wheels was now full of loud, off key singing. As the boys and The Boss shouted of the arrival of St. Nick, I looked around my van in dumbfounded shock, recalling how just that morning I had emptied it from its Halloween clutter of discarded costumes pieces and candy wrappers.  Christmas, I found out later that day, was not just blaring on the radio, but like a freight train eager to leave the station, it was making its way full speed at places like the Mall, Walmart and even T.V. commercials!  Grinning Jack-O-Lanterns, scary skeleton masks and aisles of Halloween candy were now being upstaged by Santa and Snowmen.  Standing in front of the huge Christmas tree looming just inside the entrance of Walmart, sounding like an old Wendy's commercial, I picked my jaw off the ground and found myself asking, "Where's the Turkey?!" 

It really shouldn't be that much of a shock.  Thanksgiving, a holiday with Christian origins, has had it's long, turkey neck on the the chopping block for a long time and the world seems to be working over time trying to silence its gobble.  Thanksgiving is just a reminder of when our country was young and Christ was in the center.  Amnesia is the worlds goal, and a good dose of egg nog in the veins of our children as soon as the month of November hits, is their solution.  How do we as Christians fight back and take back this historical, Christ-centered holiday?  Simple, leave a legacy of tradition even stronger than Rudolf and his red nose.

Tradition:  "An inherited, established, or customary pattern of thought or action."  I'm a big one for establishing tradition! Any chance I get, I try to tack a new one on and like clockwork I make sure they happen....why?  Tradition = family unity!  Traditions don't have to be fancy.  A few of our weekly examples are popcorn on Sunday nights, Saturday Morning Muffins and Friday Night Pizza/Movie Night.  Traditions can come in all different shapes and sizes and none is too small to be included!

We as parents can breathe new life into Thanksgiving for our children by expanding their view of this popular "all-you-can-eat " feast day by adding a few new traditions on.  What traditions can you start?  One we have used over the years is "Thanks-living" treasures by Family Life Today.  We get out our treasure chest shaped box a week before Thanksgiving and read the pilgrim story and the devotionals each day right up to Thanksgiving.  Recipes (hard tack is the kids' favorite!), pictures, and little trinkets are all used together to help teach the kids the Christian origins behind the holiday. 

After my Ann Arbor trip radio shock moment, I decided it was time we add another Thanksgiving tradition to our arsenal and shine an even brighter spotlight on the holiday.  Emphasising the "Thanks" in Thanksgiving weighed heavy on my heart and the phrase, "Novembers 30 Days of Thanks" popped into my head.  That's it!  We're going to retake Thanksgiving in 30 days! From the time the kids could write, we found it important to teach the kids thankfulness and gratitude by writing their own thank you notes. Verbal thanks is great and we encourage that, too, but there's something about going the extra mile and writing a hand written note that really cements the feeling of gratitude. Friends and family have received notes of thanks......but our God hasn't.  Kelsey came up with a post-it thank you note idea for the fridge with each family member writing their thanks on the post-it note of the day. Every day, the collage of thanks will be added to until the end of November, when the word "Thanksgiving" will be evident for all to see.   Our 30 days of hand written "Thanks" will create a colorful masterpiece displaying God's merciful and gracious "giving"!  November 30th, will be a day of rejoicing with a fridge full of rainbow post-its notes of promises fulfilled! 

So, how about you?  Are you up for the challenge?  Let's take back Thanksgiving.....in 30 days!