Start a conversation about gifts and gratitude by asking these questions:
1. What special talents and abilities do you think God has given you? How do you thank God for those gifts?
2. What are some ways you can praise God by using your talents?
3. How can you express gratitude for other people’s talents—and encourage them to use their gifts wisely?
Try these fun activities to express gratitude for the gifts God has given each of your family members.
• Grateful Game— Play a game of Hot Potato with a twist. Sit in a circle, play praise music, and pass around a gourd or other Thanksgiving decoration. Pause the music at varying intervals. When the music stops, the person with the object must say one talent or gift he or she is thankful for. Play until everyone has several chances to thank God, the giver of all good things.
To add more challenge, throw the object across the circle instead of passing it. This adds an element of surprise because people won’t know if they’ll have the object when the music stops. For even more excitement, use three or four objects rotating in assigned directions. Players will have to stay sharp—and think of even more gifts for which to be grateful.
• Amazing Bodies—Have each family member draw a gingerbread-cookie-type person and draw arrows from different parts of the body to the outer rim of the paper. Say: “From the head, write words or draw pictures that describe what you like to learn about. From the hands, things you like to do. From the feet, places you like to go. From the stomach, things you like to eat, and so on.” Read aloud Psalm 139:14.
Form a circle and link arms. Have family members say in unison, “I am fearfully and wonderfully made!” Then have everyone raise their hands and close in a prayer of thanks for the wonderful bodies God has given us.
