Resources to Help Your Family Celebrate a Christ-Focused Thanksgiving

Inside: Resources to help you keep your heart and your family’s focused on Christ this Thanksgiving, plus my top three picks.

As Thanksgiving approaches, it’s such a good time for us to reflect on the blessings in our lives and give thanks to the Lord for His goodness to us. My hope is that we don’t only do this at this time of year but always (1 Thessalonians 5:18), and this season can be a good reset to remind us. As believers, we get to celebrate Thanksgiving by giving thanks to the Lord, so our celebrations should look so different from how the world celebrates. After all, who are they giving thanks to?

I pray these resources will help keep your heart and your family’s focused on Christ this season, and that this focus will continue throughout your days.

In my book Homemaking Matters, Chapter 7 is titled “Choosing Joy and Gratitude,” and it’s a chapter my own heart needs to revisit often. If you’ve picked up a copy (and if you haven’t yet, why not?!), this is a good season to give that chapter a read.

“Being thus arrived in a good harbor and brought safe to land, they fell upon their knees and blessed the God of Heaven, who had brought them over the vast and furious ocean, and delivered them from all the perils and miseries thereof, again to set their feet on the firm and stable earth, their proper element.”

~ William Bradford, Of Plymouth Plantation

Below is a roundup of resources to help guide you and your family in celebrating Thanksgiving with a focus on Christ. These are resources our family has benefited from over the years.

Before you get overwhelmed looking at the list below, here are the three I’d reach for first:

1. Why Do We Say Thank You? by Champ Thornton
2. Thanksgiving 101, a sermon by Alistair Begg (an annual listen for me)
3. The First Thanksgiving by Robert Tracy McKenzie

And if you’d like help with the planning itself, my Planning a Christ-Focused Thanksgiving Guide will walk you through a simple Thanksgiving plan you can use year after year.

At the Blog:

All Thanksgiving Related Posts & Podcasts

10 Simple Ways to Keep Christ at the Heart of Thanksgiving

Remembering to Thank God for His Blessings

EP 7: Getting Ready for Company Fast: Your Heart & Home

EP 47: Simple Ideas for a Christ-Centered Thanksgiving

EP 153: Christ-Centered Thanksgiving: Simple Planning & Traditions

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Children’s Books:

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Adult & Family Reads:

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Music:

Songs of Thanksgiving Spotify Playlist from Keith & Kristyn Getty

Piano Hymns, Praise & Worship Songs by David Nevue

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Articles:

Thanksgiving as Theological Act: What does it Mean to Give Thanks? @Albert Mohler

What should be the focus of Christians on Thanksgiving? @Got Questions

30 Day Gratitude Challenge @Revive Our Hearts

Thankful to Whom? @The Cripplegate

Thankfulness @For the Gospel

Separation, Purity & Thanksgiving @Grace to You Blog

Ten Questions to Ask at a Thanksgiving Gathering @Donald Whitney

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Audio & Video:

Thanksgiving 101 @Alistair Begg

Thanksgiving @5 Minutes in Church History

Thanksgiving by R.C. Sproul

A Model for Giving Thanks (1 Chronicles 16:8-36) @John MacArthur

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Thankfulness to God is a recognition that God in His goodness and faithfulness has provided for us and cared for us, both physically and spiritually. It is a recognition that we are totally dependent upon Him; that all that we are and have comes from God.

Jerry Bridges, The Practice of Godliness

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You Might Also Enjoy:

• 10 Simple Ways to Keep Christ at the Heart of Thanksgiving
• EP 47: Simple Ideas for a Christ-Centered Thanksgiving
• Weekend Coffee Break {Thanksgiving Edition}
• Our Simple Thanksgiving Traditions
• Keeping a Right Heart in Busy Seasons