Thanksgiving Day 2 Pictures

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Thanksgiving Pictures

Happy Thanksgiving!

Bounty

Thou great and only Potentate,

Thou hast made summer and winter,

day and night;

each of these revolutions serves our welfare

and is full of they care and kindness.

Thy bounty is seen in the relations that train us,

the laws that defend us,

the homes that shelter us,

the food that builds us,

the raiment that comforts us,

the continuance of our health, members,

senses, understanding, memory,

affection, will.

But as stars fade before the rising sun,

thou hast eclipsed all these benefits

in the wisdom and grace that purposed

redemption by Jesus thy Son.

Blessed be thy mercy that laid help on

one that is mighty and willing,

one that is able to save to the uttermost.

Make us deeply sensible of our need of his

saving grace,

of the blood that cleanses,

of the rest he has promised.

And impute to us that righteousness which

justifies the guilty,

gives them a title to eternal life,

and possession of the Spirit.

May we love the freeness of salvation,

and joy in its holiness;

Give us faith to grasp thy promises, that are our hope,

provide for every exigency,

and prevent every evil;

Keep our hearts from straying after forbidden pleasures;

May thy will bind all our wishes;

Let us live out of the world as to its spirit,

maxim, manners,

but live in it as the sphere of our action

and usefulness;

May we be alive to every call of duty,

accepting without question

thy determination of our circumstances

and our service.

--Valley of Vision

Thanksgiving Jar

I recently read an excellent book by Noel Piper, called Treasuring God in Our Traditions.

She talked about making traditions in the normal every day things of life, like always reading to them while they fold laundry, etc. There are also the important practices of teaching them to have their own daily quiet time with the Lord. Even before they could read, she would have her children sit down with a Bible story on CD and listen to that so they were trained to have that personal time with God. She stressed the importance of family meal time at the table and praying together, as a family and as a couple. One of the things she pointed out was that at Holidays we need to make sure that everything we are doing is pointing our children towards Christ. She encourages her readers to come up with some of their own family traditions.

I read about this online and thought I would try it since it's so simple. I took a canning jar and affixed some scrap booking paper to it. Then I cut out some small pieces of paper (which I'm storing in a little basket with a pen next to the jar). The idea is that we write down things we are thankful for all during the month and then on Thanksgiving we will read them. I'm toying with the idea of reading them once a week instead of all of them on Thanksgiving, but I haven't decided yet. It was so simple but I'm hoping this will help all of us focus on all of the things we have to be thankful for and most of all the God who deserves our thanks. Rylie is enjoying it so far and has already had me write several things she is thankful for (her various toys mostly).

If you come to our Mops group, we're going to make these at our next meeting.

(The pine cone turkey was a craft that Rylie made in Cubbies. Pam got the pine cones from the Redwood forest. Isn't it cute?!)

Thanksgiving

Top 3 things Rylie is thankful for:

1. Corn

2. Cheeseburgers

3. God

(at least she's well fed!)

Here is the link to all of our Thanksgiving pictures:

http://community.webshots.com/album/561536487kVNJrl?vhost=community