Thanksgiving week is now upon us! Woo-hoo! It's officially my favorite time of year. As I was reading my current devotional Saturday, I came across something that inspired me, and I want to share it. I am reading "The Power of Motherhood - What the Bible Says about Mothers" by Nancy Campbell, of Above Rubies ministry. (Which I LOVE). The current chapter is about mothers being prayer warriors, and making our homes "houses of prayer". She wrote about how it is so easy to bring our requests before God, but we often forget to thank Him. Philippians 4 :6 says "Be careful for nothing; but in everything by prayer and supplication with THANKSGIVING let your requests be made known unto God." She noted that we need to make it a habit to constantly thank the Lord. We need to thank Him for everything and anything : salvation, our children, creation, His goodness, etc.... We need to teach our children to be thankful and to cultivate the habit of thankfulness. It is hard to remember to be thankful sometimes, especially in the midst of our often crazy busy days. So, she suggested we use our kitchen timer! Set it for 30 minutes. As soon as it rings, stop for a minute and thank and praise the Lord. Then set it again for another half hour. Repeat. This will start to develop the habit of continually thanking the Lord. If we do this with our littles, this is how we can train them to be "overflowing with gratitude" (Colossians 2 :7). What is interesting and humbling about this exercise is that the timer will surely go off while the kiddos are fighting, or while you are about to "blow your top"! What a great way to remind us to repent of our bad attitudes and praise the Lord instead! Yes, sometimes we don't feel like praising the Lord. Feelings come and feelings go. We cannot let our lives be governed by our feelings. The Bible commands us to thank God in ALL circumstances and at ALL times. Scheduling praise does sound a bit "sterile", but after you start, your attitude changes. Thanksgiving week is the perfect week to implement this exercise. We started this morning. My usually resistant and grumpy child expressed his disdain as expected, but the others were ready for the challenge. Wouldn't you know it, Mr. Grumpy-pants is now one of the first to announce his thankfulness and praise each time that buzzer rings! They say developing a habit takes1 about 6 weeks... we're starting with this one! Ooh - do I hear the buzzer? Thank you Lord! Happy Thanksgiving!
