How to Teach Kids Gratitude This Thanksgiving: 4 Weeks From the Bible
From The Best Gift, the Christ Formed Kids Holiday Series for preschool through 5th grade.
You teach kids gratitude by helping them see God as the giver. Thankfulness is not mainly good manners. It grows when children remember what God has done, receive life as a gift, learn to thank Him on hard days as well as good ones, and let thankfulness shape how they live. Those four steps (remember, receive, rejoice, respond) make a simple path for a family or a classroom through the Thanksgiving season.
My little children, of whom I am again in travail until Christ is formed in you
Galatians 4:19, World English Bible
Kids are never too young to know God, hear His voice and walk with Him. Gratitude is one of the first places that formation shows up.
Week 1: Remember
Gratitude begins with remembering. We become ungrateful when we lose sight of what God has already done for us.
Praise Yahweh, my soul, and don’t forget all his benefits;
Psalm 103:2, World English Bible
Try this at home: Start a "remember jar." Each night at dinner, everyone names one thing God did for them that day, writes it on a slip of paper and drops it in. By Thanksgiving you will have a jar full of reasons to thank Him.
Week 2: Receive
Gratitude grows when we stop seeing life as something we are owed and start receiving it as a gift. Children notice quickly when something feels unfair. This week, help them notice how much has been given.
Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom can be no variation, nor turning shadow.
James 1:17, World English Bible
Try this at home: Walk through your house and play "Who gave us this?" Point to the food, the bed, a friend's drawing on the fridge. Every answer leads back to the Father who gives good gifts.
Week 3: Rejoice
We can say thank you to God even on hard days, not just good ones. That is one of the most important things a child can learn: God is still good when the day is not.
Rejoice always. Pray without ceasing. In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus toward you.
1 Thessalonians 5:16-18, World English Bible
Try this at home: At bedtime, ask two questions: "What was hard today?" and "Where was God with you in it?" Then thank Him together for being near.
Week 4: Respond
Real gratitude shows up in how we live: generous, worshipful and centered on God.
And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body; and be thankful.
Colossians 3:15, World English Bible
Try this at home: Let your kids choose one way to give during Thanksgiving week: a card for a neighbor, a bag of groceries for someone in need, or a song of thanks sung together before the meal.
Church and Home Moving Together
Spiritual formation goes deepest when church and home move together. God told parents to talk about His words "when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise up" (Deuteronomy 6:7). A Sunday lesson plants a seed, and a dinner-table conversation waters it.
That is why we built the Holiday Series in three parts: Sunday Guides for church or classroom, kids devotional journals for 1st-2nd and 3rd-5th grade, and a parent guide for a 25-30 minute family gathering at the end of each week.
Go deeper. These four weeks are the first half of The Best Gift Holiday Series from Christ Formed Kids. The second half walks through Advent: read Advent With Kids: 4 Weeks of Christ Coming Near. Whether you lead a kids ministry, teach a classroom or co-op, or are raising kids at home, see the full Holiday Series.
Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible (public domain).
