Lesson: Give thanks to God and to others
Bible Passage:
This moment should be given during the week of Thanksgiving and requires you have something small to give the children – the more unusual, the better. I found over-sized jacks at the Dollar Store, the toy you pick up after throwing the ball in the air that look like three dimensional stars. Whatever you choose, make it unusual.
Who can tell me what day we are celebrating this week? (Thanksgiving) And to whom do we give thanks? (God) You know, with all the fun of Halloween and then Christmas appearing right afterward in the stores, sometimes Thanksgiving gets cheated out of being celebrated. But fortunately, that’s not the case here. At OUR church, we give thanks to God EVERY day – and we especially remember to do this at Thanksgiving. And today I have something very special for you.
(Hold up the jack) Who knows what this is? (Allow the guesses and then say) This is Thanks. And it is something we should be giving all the time. And today, I want to give thanks for each one of you. (Approach each child with a Thanks and say something like, “Malia – I give you thanks (as you hand the child the jack) for (say something specific about that child for which you are grateful. Do the same with each child).
Each of you has a Thanks and I’m going to give you some more (Hand out your Thanks) because what I want you to do is to hand these out to people whom you want to say “thank you.” Maybe it’s your family, maybe it’s a friend or maybe someone who just did something nice for you. But when you hand these out, tell them, “This is a Thanks that I am giving to you,” and tell them why.
And together, let’s say “Thank you to God, for all the many gifts you have given us, both known and unknown, and may we share that love of yours to all we meet – in everything we say and everything we do. Amen.”