Karen,

I really have the desire this year to hopefully teach my children more about being thankful. I did pick up two of the Christmas shoe boxes from Samaritans Purse on campus. We will try to fill those this weekend with my boys. But, I would like to do something here in the area, so I will probably contact the mission in Arlington to see if they need any helpers and if it can be a family affair. I also want to try making some home made gifts or crafts that the kids can do instead of buying things this year, so if any of you know some kid-friendly craft websites let me know (mrssingleton21@gmail.com). My mom is also in a nursing home, so they always have big activities going on for the holidays, so we may pop over and help serve lunch/dinner if they allow us to come. Thanks for the encouragement to be more hands on about our faith. Peace & Blessings.

I love your site Karen. I NEED to visit often. Do the Heart of the Home conferences ever come to Mich? Thanks for centering me.

Hugs,
Sarah Lewis

Hello!

Thanks so much for posting those ideas! I think it’s great to teach your kids such valuable lessons. I will be married next year to a man in the military, and when we have kids, it’s so important to us that they understand how privileged they are and that they develop a heart to serve. I’m in public health, and I look at people suffering worldwide, but it’s also happening in our own backyard.
I will try to do something special for a family with deployed military personnel. I certainly feel connected to them.
God Bless!

Karen,
Thank you for the list of hands on opportunities to help others during the holidays or just during difficult times. I especially liked the idea of giving gift cards for gas or groceries to a family in need. There are many times I would like to prepare a meal for someone. However, cooking is not my thing!! Grocery store gift card would be perfect — no cooking for me and they don’t have to suffer through my meal!

Another way to volunteer this holiday season is to help sort gifts at an agency that provides gifts to children and families at Christmas. For the past two years, my family has purchased gifts for two children through a local agency. When I dropped off our gifts last year, I stayed to help sort toys and clothes. It’s a ton of work so I encourage you to find an agency that might need some sorting help!

And one final thought. Our elementary school has shifted its focus for its annual “Santa Shop.” In previous years, Santa Shop involved students bringing money to purchase gifts (think coffee mugs, costume jewelry, etc.) for their family. This year, the students will be filling a stocking with toiletries, school supplies, and a small toy. The stockings will then be donated to a local agency for distribution at Christmas. It is my sincere hope that the students will realize that things like a bar of soap and a new pencil can be a blessing to someone.

Thank you for the reminder to reach out and serve.
Blessings~
Kelly

Thanks Karen,

Another group that we can reach out to and expand our world is students from other countries. Many Universities have a lot of foreign students studying here in the US. If you have a couple extra places at your table invite a couple of foreign students. They often don’t know about our country and it’s traditions. It is an opportunity for our children to see how small the world really is, putting a face to a distant country. It is also great for them to get to know/meet some real Americans as opposed to those that they hear about in the news.

Thanks Karen!

How about doing something for the men and women in nursing homes? Thanks for the reminder to help people this holiday season. I want my boys to know that Thanksgiving is more about turkey, football and all that too.

Loved your message today. My children are all grown now but I have nine grandchildren that I can share this with.
What a great idea to help a single parent. I have a dear friend who is a single parent and I know she struggles year round to make ends meet. I have helped them some in the past but what a marvelous way to spend the holidays making their holidays joyful.

There are many people around the holidays that are very much alone. A year ago I started taking my niece and nephew to the local nursing home to hand out hand written Christmas cards, small gift bags (I checked with the staff to see which patients have no visitors and what they may need) and candy canes. The expression on their faces was unbelieveable….most in nursing homes just love seeing children and they light up talking to them. I also had my niece read to any that were interested (and most were) the Christmas story and other Christmas themed books. We will continue this again this year and plan on doing something around Valentine’s Day too!

Thank you for the many great ideas about de-stressing at Christmas time. We must remember to teach our children what the true meaning of Christmas is and helping others is one way we can show the love of Jesus!

Blessings to you this holiday season….

As always, great post. I love all of the ideas that have been posted. Since my dad died 7 years ago I have become so aware of the loneliness of widows. We have a lot of widows and widowers in our churces and neighborhoods, some with no family around. It would be awesome to invite some to our home for Thanksgiving or to have a big dinner somewhere and invite a big group. Thanks for all of the ideas and may God be praised through whatever we decide to do.

It’s not really a monetary support, but going to visit the elderly in rest homes or assisted living facilities is a very rewarding way to spread some kindness and Godliness.

Karen, Thanks for this post. It’s so important to teach our kids about being thankful and helping others. We are helping a friend with her project of Operation Shoebox. This is her second year. They fill shoeboxes with all kinds of things for our troops in Iraq and afghanistan. So many of them don’t have family or people sending them letters and packages, so this really lifts their spirits. All the kids make cards to put in the boxes, as well. It’s a big packing party with some people bringing filled shoeboxes, and others packing donations into boxes. I’m looking forward to helping out this year along with our family and friends. Thanks for sharing your thoughts and ideas. Wishing you a beautiful Thanksgiving!

Karen, I think all of your ideas are wonderful. We live in a small town, so a soup kitchen is not an option. but we have a Crisis Pregnancy Center, and I have volunteered there. I love to organize, and would like to help others in that way. I am too a single Mom, and help with my outside decorations would be a tremendous help to me because I love to decorate my house! (taking them down would be an even bigger help!) I am going to try your questions for “destressing Christmas” on my kids, also. God Bless!

Thank you for your post. This post reminded me of the faithfulness of God being expressed through His people. One year we hit a point with some extra expenses that we had no money for groceries. I looked back over a three month period and found that I had spent around $20 for groceries over that entire three months for our family of five. And yet we never missed a meal. My husband was pastoring a small rural church at the time, and before this three months began, someone in the congregation decided that the church should show their support and love to us through a food drive. Our cabinets were stuffed with food. Someone even went and bought a quantity of meat for us and filled our freezer. The Lord met our needs even before we had them! When it was getting close to Thanksgiving and I could see the freezer about empty and the cabinets returned to below normal, I found myself praying again, “Lord, we’re getting a little low. Please provide. Either so we can buy groceries again or somehow.” Just a couple of days later another family from our church brought us a Thanksgiving basket. They brought us a huge turkey and more canned goods. God met our needs through the generous giving of God’s people!

For several years now, we’ve tried to open our home on Thanksgiving for someone in our area who has no family near by. We want to share in the blessings of God’s provision with those who may need food but more often need the encouragement and friendship of those around them.

I love the ideas. One thing we do is the Operation Christmas child boxes. My little boy love picking out things to send to a child in need.

Thank you so much for listing several ways I can serve along with my children. Our family is struggling just like so many others and I knew deep inside that if I could step outside of our four walls and serve those that truly are in “need” it would remind me that we are so fortunate. We have a home with cupboards full of food and clothing to keep us warm and to cool off with in the different seasons! We have comfortable beds, blankets, fans, heating and air conditioning. Things we take for granted and forget in the day-to-day life. I have already signed up for a Christmas Outreach, but I am definitely going to look into giving during the Thanksgiving season as well. I am going to present your suggestions to my children and see which ones perk their interest, so they can feel a sense of responsibility as well. Thank you so much and God bless youo and your family.

Thanks for the reminder – we so often forget or take for granted our many many blessings –

Project: Remember the Senior Adults – whether they are widows or maybe their spouse is in a nursing home or their families are not local and are not coming home for Thanksgiving- cook for them – invite them over – SHARE your blessings – sometimes you only have to look across the street or down the street to find someone that you NEED to share this Thanksgiving with!!!!!!!

Karen-

Thank you for taking the time to write today’s devotional. And for taking the time to think it all through, post on your blog, and putting together that cute basket.

I’ll admit that, initially, after reading the devotional, I felt a bit affronted. It almost seemed like one of those emails which tell you, “Now pass this on to 10 of your friends, if you really care about them.” Those types of emails really annoy me and I usually delete them! Instead of deleting yours, I pondered and prayed about it a bit. Then I decided to check out your blog through the link about “other ideas to serve”. When I reached the idea about reaching out to the military community and babysitting while the moms went Christmas shopping, that grabbed me! Both my husband and I are veterans and I remember what it’s like to have your spouse be gone, several thousands of miles away. So I will be looking into that avenue of reaching out.

Also, I wanted to share with you a time when someone reached out to us. It was just last Christmas. My husband was laid off from his job around mid-November. Thankfully, he was offered a job in December but money was still VERY tight. Around this same time, we switched churches, so people in both churches knew our situation. Well, about two weeks before Christmas, we received an greeting card-sized envelope in the mail. Our address was typed out and there was no return address. Having watched too many episodes of NCIS, I held the envelope far away from me as I opened it, in case any powdery substance should be contained within. :^) Since nothing strange fell out, I pulled out what was inside: a $50 Walmart gift card! I immediately thanked God and almost cried.

That in itself would have been enough to help us through, but a few days later, also in the mail, with our address type-written, we received a $50 Visa gift card! I began to have my suspicions as to who our anonymous benefactor was but said nothing. And I thought that would be the last of the anonymous giving. However, one night, around 8:30/9:00pm, I was in the dining room when there was a very loud knock on the door. Scared me half to death! Called up to my husband to come downstairs because I wasn’t about to answer the door. He went outside and discovered our “Secret Santa” had struck again! On our patio were 3 very large gift bags: one filled with toys and games (from the Dollar Tree :^) for each of our kids (we have two) and one filled with kitchen accessories and items for my husband and me. It brings tears to my eyes and immense thankfulness just recounting it now.

I don’t know who it was that reached out to us like that. However, since then, I have prayed that God would bless them for their kindness. It really did help out this struggling family and we are eternally grateful to them and our Awesome God!

Please forgive the length of this post but I thought you would want to know! :^)

Thank you, Karen for this devotional that hits home about thankfulness. No matter our circumstances, it is a commandment that we help others in some way.

Another idea is volunteering to prepare & serve a meal to the parents & families of sick children staying at a Ronald McDonald Home or something similar to that; major hospitals could tell you what is closest. Some friends stayed at the RMH for 8 weeks while their newborn son fought for his life, which he ultimately lost. The RMH offers 3 meals a day, but does so through volunteers & gifts. What a blessing to these parents to be able to count on a free, “home-cooked” meal while they are going through the worst possible situation of their lives. To not have to think about what to eat & where, when money may be tight, in a strange city/state; it’s such a blessing to help others like this. They need all the help they can get at times like this. This is a great idea for a family project, a class project, a bible-study group, or just a small group of friends to provide for others in need. It doesn’t even need to be a holiday, although especially important then. They need to eat on a Thursday afternoon, too!

Thank you, God, for all the many blessings you give to us. Please open our eyes to see even the little things you provide for us every single day!

Today’s devotion has inspired me to do more for others this holiday season. Both of my parents are 60 years old and are unemployed for the first time in their lives. I hurt for them and my heart has been burden to serve them and others more than ever. I am going to put a team of ladies together at our church to brainstorm something we can do to serve hurting families in our little town. We just recently began a Pizza ministry with our youth group to take homemade pizzas and deserts to families whose children participate in our afterschool program. This new outreach has been a blessing already to the families and to our youth. I am excited to see what God will allow us to do this season in the name of Jesus! Maybe serving rolls by switching rolls for a change. Thank you for the encouraging and challenging devotion today! God Bless!

Karen,thank you for reminding us that we are serving God when we serve others. And the ideas for service are great! So often I think about Christmas as the time to give. I am praying that God will show my family how we can serve others during Thanksgiving as well. Thank you!

Thank you so much for your devotion and blog today.
It is a reminder to our hearts to reach out – we’ve been givers and receivers – so often it is hard to be on the receiving end – then someone with God’s heart reaches out to you – and you feel His love. We have taught our daughter and now her sons to always be on the look out of how we can minister to others in far worse needs than we are. Once again, Thank you.
Tricia Grable
patricia.grable@wsdtx.org

My boyfriend and I cooked up a big pot of rice and beans and fed a bunch of homeless guys in our local downtown. It was a great opportunity to get to talk with some of the guys, many have families and some were even war veterans. We’re looking forward to taking a hot meal downtown, and we’re also volunteering with our local church in their homeless outreach.

We like many others went throught the period of no job…last year from Sept. thru December. We were blessed by others with a Turkey for thanksgiving. And our oldest son’s school teacher giving him coupons for kids meals out.
Through that time, we taught all of our boys to be thankful for what they had. And as our youngest grew out of his things – we gave them away to military moms who were also struggling.
God was so faithful through this time to provide everything we needed!

There are several ways that I have helped and would like to continue to help out. The last couple years in my husbands family we have typical extended family Christmas year. In addition to the typical buffet style eating, game playing, and conversational fun we have all brought baked goods inorder to auction off. The goodies are all placed on a table and one of the family members is our auctioneer. The goodies, some made by aunts and uncles, some by grandmas, some by cousins and even by young children are all auctioned off amongst the group. The money used is then given to a local group who needs financial support. Last year we gave the $200ish amount to the Salvation Army.

Hello there,
The past 5 years my family and I have been the ones who have been helped during the holidays. My husband and I have been really blessed this year as well by the Lord, and we feel like the Lord has been calling us to bless others who also are in need of help. My idea I had was to find a family in need this year from our church or at any other organization such as Salvation Army and adopt them for Thanksgiving and Christmas. Our children can pick out presents for the children and my husband and I can pick out presents for the adults and we can put together a gift basket for Thanksgiving with a gift card to buy their turkey…also my husband always gets a turkey from work so we could just give them that one. We always have lots of family pitching in for the turkey so that won’t be a problem for our family to afford!!! My family and I are committing to helping another family this year even if it means we go without because we want to sacrafice so that someone in need doesn’t have to. We want to do this for the Lord and give back what he’s provided so many times before. Also, may God bless those out there who are wanting to do the same!
Jess

Thanks, Karen, for your devotion about serving others this Thanksgiving and year round! As a teenager my family served at homeless shelters on Thanksgiving and it was such a wonderful experience. It always made us so thankful for the many ways God provided for us! Now with 4 kids of my own, we look for ways to serve others as a family – and I was looking for something over the holidays. Thanks for your reminder – I’ll be looking up a homeless shelter that serves on Thanksgiving!

Thanks for the giveaway and great reminders about helping others.

Thanks again Karen for your encouraging words. It’s been on my mine and heart lately to think of a way to do for someone during the holidays. I’m very grateful for all God has blessed me and my family with and want to share in some way. You gave some good ideas. I love to bake and will probably do some basket of goodies to share with others, and include a card with a wal-mart gift card. Another thing we have done is to pay someones utility bill so they can have extra during the holidays.

Thanks Karen for your encouraging words. I liked the idea of baking cookies for the pregnancy resourse center. I had never thought of doing that.
Blessings to you.

I am thankful for our support team. We could not be in full time ministry without them. God meets our needs in so many fun and different ways.
2 things that personally stand out as gifts from God are the following:
- when my kids were little, I was feeling frazzled and not great about myself. A friend gave me a certificate to go to a spa and get a facial and a manicure. It was so refreshing to get alittle time away and to be pampered!
-a friend provided a weekend getaway and then gave me cash with the condition to spend it on me. It was so fun to get the things I needed and a few clothes that I wanted.