THE CHILDREN’S STORY CORNER:

THANKSGIVING

Soon the holiday of Thanksgiving will be here. In a way, we shouldn’t need to set aside one special day for giving thanks. It should be something we do often. We should want to give thanks to God every day for all His blessings: for our parents, their care, food, shelter, health, friends, pets and so much more. Can you think of other things?

It is a great blessing to have a caring family, as well as some close friends. There are many people who are all alone, perhaps their families have died or moved far away. Maybe they are not good at making new friends because they are shy with people. It is always a good thing to try to be a friend to someone who is alone.

If you see someone who is not smiling or looks unhappy and lonely, why don’t you give them one of your smiles and see if you can start a mile of smiles that way! Isn’t it wonderful that a smile is understood in any language? If you often have a smile on your face, you will no doubt be asked why you are so happy? Then you can tell them some reasons why you are happy and thankful. Smiling is also a good way to start a conversation. It has been said that if you smile when you answer the phone, it will even make the tone of your voice happy to the one calling you. Do you know that it takes fewer muscles to smile than to frown?

Some people always think about and speak of their problems and that just keeps them fresh in their mind. It would be much better to keep counting our blessings and all the reasons we have for being thankful. If we look for these, we will find many things for which to give thanks to our Heavenly Father. There is a hymn that says, “Count your many blessings, name them one by one; and it will surprise you what the Lord has done!”

If we make it a habit to look for good things, we are more likely to find them than if we keep looking at our problems and thinking more may come! And I think that even though we want to be thankful every day, it is a good thing that we set aside a Special Day to give thanks to the Lord for the many, many things with which He has blessed us. Maybe when you and your family are eating turkey and all the trimmings, you can go around the table and share with one another some things for which you are most thankful. It will bless the Lord’s heart also to see us being grateful!

Your Aunt Vivien