Friday, November 23, 2007

Thanksgiving prayer

How was your Thanksgiving?

Ours was a great day spent with family and friends. Ed decided instead of doing a prayer before dinner, he was going to shake things up a bit. Half an hour before dinner, he passed out a piece of paper to everyone which read as follows:

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18
Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is
God's will for you in Christ Jesus.

Prior to our Thanksgiving meal together, we are going to give thanks in a new
traditional way. The passage above says to "give thanks in all circumstances." Think back on the last year. What seemed hard, but in looking back you can say, "Thank you, Jesus. I can see that you really had my best in mind."? That is what each of us will get to do. Just before the meal, we will each pray. Thanking Jesus for one specific event or events that was hard, and the beauty that resulted.

Ed will start the prayer of thanksgiving. We will pray around the circle. When your turn comes, you may simply say, "pass" and the next person will pray their prayer of thanksgiving. After the last person prayed, we will read a passage of Scripture together.


We then all read/responded Psalm 136.

Everyone prayed, even my teenage nieces. It was awesome to hear the struggles/hardships and how God sustained/blessed/grew each person. To stop and take a different angle of thanksgiving was a great new tradition that I hope we continue on throughout the next years.

5 comments:

Hillary said...

What a fabulous idea!

And can I jsut say how much I L-O-V-E seeing your blog updated every single day! Every time I see that little "1" beside A Slice Of the Epic in my bloglines, I go YIPPEE on the inside and click on over. I hope you're enjoying NaBloPoMo and that it's not a burden to you. It sure is fun to read! :) (And you're my hero, even getting posts in when you had no internet at home! Go you!)

Enjoy the rest of your weekend! :)

Hillary said...

(hehe, actually, I lied. I don't click on over right away... yours is one of the few that I save till I've read all the other posts. Gotta save the best ones till last! :) )

Unknown said...

That's funny...I always read the people I know very first and then save the ones I just like for later...if I have time! :)

Unknown said...

Oh, and Thanksgiving was FABULOUS! :)

You & Ed are excellent hosts.

Jean said...

Thanks Hills! :) I am enjoying NaBloPoMo and the challenge of posting every day and trying to think of something different each day.

Thank you my sweet Anne. It was wonderful having you here and I enjoyed the potatoes again tonight..and apple crisp will be enjoyed later. :)