6 Ways to Find Real Joy & Peace at Thanksgiving

Sometimes Thanksgiving can cause thoughts of sorrow, angst and sadness. It’s easy to get caught up in the loss of a loved one we might be spending our first, fifth or twentieth holiday without. It may even be that our insurance has been canceled, jobs have been lost or life has just become hard.

How can you find real joy & peace at Thanksgiving?

I was thinking about this a few days ago, as I sat with some moms with grown children. Each shared their joys and sorrows. One good thing I didn’t hear were hearts filled with guilt.

What I did hear were hearts and voices who knew they had done the absolute best they could do with each circumstance and best of all, a knowledge that God had full control with the outcome. I want to give you what I gained from these conversations, sweet friend.

I want to give you the freedom to enjoy peace at Thanksgiving … peace & joy unlike any other you have ever experienced.

Finding Real Joy and a heart of gratitude can be hard to do in a world that is plagued with sin. Oh, but we don’t have to live that way. We can truly choose to live lives that are not consumed by anything other than the grace, love, beauty and fellowship so freely given.

Today, I am sharing some ways to enjoy Thanksgiving, to experience joy & peace at Thanksgiving – even in the midst of sorrow grief and perhaps a little stress.

Start with Today

Begin each day with the knowing yesterday is passed.

No matter what happened – a death, bad temper, job loss, raise in pay check, disobedient children – it’s all in the past. Many of those will impact today, but every yesterday you have experienced has been a stepping stone to this day. The one today … right now … is the one you are living. Today is a gift, one filled with every single moment you have lived to encourage and share love with others, giving glory to God.

Sing Songs

Nothing brings joy & peace to your heart more than singing songs of hymns and praise to our Father!

Yes, pull out a hymnal, listen to a hymn or worship song on your favorite station.

Rest in the beauty of praising our Father, as you fill your home and your family’s hearts of all live there with the beauty and grace. Beauty and grace from these sweet songs of yesterday. That grace will build joy & peace in the hearts growing for tomorrow

Read

Yes! Read. Start with the word that brings freedom. Remember, Jesus died for you, even when you were still a sinner. Isn’t that ironic. Truly, anyone would do something for a good person – but what about our enemies and that is exactly what HE did for us!

Here are some of our favorite books for Thanksgiving

• The Bible
• William Bradford Pilgrim Boy
• The Landing of the Pilgrims
• The Thanksgiving Story
• The Littlest Pilgrim

Plan

Make your menu and build your grocery list. Find your coupons and go to the store. You’re on your way!

Next make a cooking plan.

Write down the times each of your food items needs to go in the oven. This has been a life saver for me. I actually have the plan I created 5 years ago. It has the exact time each recipe needs to go into the oven and come out.

It changes a little if I add or take something off the menu, but I can’t tell you how much this has helped me enjoy this day even more!

Have a Little Fun

• Play board games
• When shopping with your children, let them pick out a treat.
• Chase your kids around the house when they attempt to ‘sneak a treat’ before dinner is ready. When you catch them, enjoy a chance to tickle them silly
• Jump in the leaves
• Make some Thanksgiving crafts.
  Let’s rephrase that – Get the crafts ready, print pictures of finished projects and let the kids make the crafts to give as gifts during the meal.
• Use Thanksgiving craft ideas to decorate your table
• Go for a walk

More Helps to Find Joy & Peace in Your Home

Bring joy & peace into your home…and into your heart. I’m excited to be one of the speakers at this upcoming conference. You’ll have 40+ sessions, taught by Titus 2 women.

If you enroll this week, you can use my coupon code: HOWTOHOMESCHOOL and save $10 off the Early Bird Price. PLUS, you can choose one of my tool kits or bundles (up to $29.99) for free. What do you need to do?

1. Click here and sign up. You must use this link to get the free tool kit.
2. Email your receipt to me
3. Click here to see all my tool kits & bundles
4. In your email, tell me which tool kit or bundle you want for free.

How are you going to find real joy & peace this Thanksgiving?

Rebecca Brandt seeks to empower Moms of Teens by encouraging them to grow in homeschool, faith, parenting and our home (schedules, meals, organization, etc). Be encouraged by her blog posts at Mom’s Mustard Seeds or at Facebook or Pinterest

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