Give thanks to God always and for everything.
Ephesians 5:20
At our Devotion Worship last week we talked about saying thanks to God. But, what are we thankful for? Luckily we had a Thankful machine (our conveyor belt) that actually spit out ideas for us. Our thankful machine worked with the energy from children clapping. Did you know clapping is another way of saying Thank You?
Anyway, our machine spit out pictures such as “nose” and on the back side was “toes.” Hey, we noticed those two things rhyme too. Noses are good because, as one boy said, “it helps me breath.” Yes, breathing is a very good thing to be thankful for. 🙂 These two items actually fit well into a song Ms. Jayne wrote for us.
I AM THANKFUL
Tune – original but begins kind of like Twinkle, Twinkle
I am thankful for my nose
I am thankful for my toes
My nose. My toes.
My nose. My toes.
I am thankful.
We sang this and added some additional “My nose, My toes” phrases . . . . . and went faster and faster. It was great to see the kids having fun while talking about being thankful. I think sometimes we get just a little too serious with this kind of discussion. It IS important to remember, but we can give thanks in fun ways too.
Other verses we sang are: The sun, I can run. My head, My bed. My shoe, And You. I play, I pray. See if you can come up with some new rhyming things you are thankful for. Here is a link to an audio clip of Ms. Jayne singing her song. I AM THANKFUL
Thank you Ms. Jayne, we love your creativity that helped us talk about being thankful in a fun, yet meaningful, way!
I also want to share with you a conversation I recently had with one of our parents. I mentioned that I like to talk with the kids about “silly” things we can be thankful for. I told her that I once mentioned toilet paper. The children laughed hilariously. Then we thought about it. What would it be like if we didn’t have it? We realized we really are thankful for toilet paper.
She mentioned that she lived in the Czech Republic during the Communist regime. She remembers that toilet paper was one of the rationed items. They would only get it on certain days and on those days there were LONG lines of people waiting for toilet paper. As you can imagine, her mother was strict about how many squares of paper you could use each time.
WOW! This truly put my life into perspective. I’ve had times that I had to be cautious about what I could spend. I’ve had to make choices between “fun” or “special” items and the necessary items. BUT, I’ve never had to worry about having the essentials such as toilet paper. I am blessed.
Perhaps this story will also touch your hearts. I pray we all recognize and celebrate all blessings, large and small, and share with God our heartfelt thanks.
I pray we give thanks to God always and for everything.
We wish you a Happy Thanksgiving!
Aldersgate Preschool 