With Fall knocking at our doors, I thought it was time to bring back the Thankful Jar post by our previous contributor, Elizabeth.  Perhaps this is something your family can do this season.

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After Labor Day, even when its well over 100 degrees outside, it always seems like FALL has finally arrived! And with fall comes Halloween and Thanksgiving! In my house, I tend to decorate for fall more than I do Halloween and I’ll put out my Halloween
décor about two weeks before October 31st.

So with that said, I LOVE preparing for Thanksgiving and with Halloween behind us, I thought I would share this quick and easy DIY craft that will be a great activity for the entire family.

Because we eat dinner as a family and want to protect that special time for as long as we can, we also choose to have quality conversation with our kids then. This is the perfect time for us to talk about what we are thankful for.

Its very simple, but the impact is huge, and THAT is what counts.

Each of us will say one or more things that we are thankful for, write them down on one piece of a paper and tuck them into our Thankful Jar. When its completely full, we will crack it open and read them. It will be a wonderful reminder of years gone by and memories we’ve made and how the Lord has blessed us. We love teaching our kids to have thankful hearts, to not take anything for granted and to always think about what we can do for others. One night, we sat down at the table, prayed and started eating when our four-and-a-half year old said, “Wait, we haven’t said what we’re thankful for yet!” What a blessing to see this tradition ingrained their hearts at such a young age.

Our Thankful Jar is actually an empty apple juice jug. I just liked the look of it and decided to use it, so after cleaning it out, I taped off an area, filled it in with chalkboard paint, let it dry and wrote “THANKS”. Now, this is a fixture at our dinner table and the
start of many wonderful conversations.

Its fun to hear what my family is thankful for – sometimes they’re silly things like cookies, “my June doll” and “Buzz Lightyear” and sometimes they’re more serious like “making it home safely today” and “a great conversation with my dad”… sometimes they remind us of once-happy times like being thankful for a new baby on the way, one that we ultimately lost… and sometimes they remind us of what’s really important – “a family that loves the Lord and the time we have together.”

I challenge you this Fall season to stop and think of what you’re thankful for, even in tough times – and to write those things down so that a year from now, you can look back and reminisce on these sweet moments that go by far too fast.

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