I was just about to post it on Facebook. A smart-aleck comment that I just knew would strike a chord of kindred spirits with everyone. Well … everyone who lives in cold climates and has to experience the weather from the outside, as opposed to sipping hot cocoa on the inside.

After waking up last week to a blanket of snow, freezing weather and hungry, thirsty chickens that needed buckets of water carried to their coop in the field, this grandma was already fed up with winter even before it started.

Determined to share my agony with everyone, the Facebook post started materializing in my mind as my frozen fingers struggled to open the chickens’ complicated new raccoon-proof door locks. I would write: “Snow is part of the curse! Look it up yourself — Irritations 11:20.” At that moment, I was convinced that winter was a curse and summer was a blessing.

Then I logged into my computer and the post I was about to type disintegrated into oblivion. There, staring me in the face, were two new posts — one from our daughter and the other from a friend, both extolling the beauty of God’s creation and His awesome presence in the cold air and fresh covering of snow.

Our daughter posted this picture and wrote: “Lovely snow we had Saturday. It fell softly and seemed to bring all the land into a reverent hush. Be still and know that He is God. (Psalm 46:10)”

And our friend wrote:  “The cold, crisp air reminds me of the Lord’s salvation. You can see clearly. You can hear clearly. It is a sweet smell. It is refreshing. It makes you alert. It jolts you out of your slumber. Yes, today reminds me of God’s goodness!!”

Wow! An attitude of gratitude sees the beauty in everything and is thankful in everything. Over the years, I’ve learned to recognize purpose in trials, praises in pain, blessings in hardships, beauty in devastation … but because we’re human, it’s still so easy to let little irritations change our focus if we aren’t continuously on guard.

Upon reading those God-honoring Facebook posts, my mind was once again transformed: I became so very thankful for the beauty and stillness of a lovely winter morning. How incredible that our awesome God could place this soft blanket upon us overnight … and create instant new scenery for us to enjoy and explore!

This morning, we received another, even larger, blanket of snow after the last one had melted. But today, I ventured out with the same water buckets but a new attitude, thanking God for the beauty and for the opportunity to get exercise in His creation by feeding and watering the chickens in the early hours of dawn.

But you know what? Those ungrateful chickens weren’t at all thankful for the snow! They refused to go out of their coop! They just stood there and stared blankly at the cold snow that had invaded their new day. One brave-hearted hen stepped gingerly onto the snow and then quickly pulled back out of it.  The rest of the flock looked at me as if I somehow could — and should — change their situation.

Isn’t that just like us? We’re unthankful when things don’t go exactly our way, and instead of seeing the beauty, we see the beast.

As grandparents, we have a unique vantage point.  We can see the beauty through our children and grandchildren. Hubby and I took our visiting 2-year-old granddaughter to the snowy chicken coop this afternoon for her first experience gathering eggs. What a joy to see the excitement in her eyes as she was surrounded by chickens, hungry for her handfuls of scratch grains, and the wonder and delight in her eyes of discovering large, shiny brown eggs in the nest boxes and helping gather them. Just to see and experience those moments was worth all of the water-lugging and feed hauling through all types of challenging weather conditions.

“Therefore, since we receive a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us show gratitude, by which we may offer to God an acceptable service with reverence and awe.” — Hebrews 12:28

Webster’s 1828 Dictionary describes Thankfulness as “Gratitude; a lively sense of good received.”

Resolved – to foster an attitude of gratitude, first in myself, and then in the grandchildren! We all have things to be thankful for — because of the goodness and mercy of God — even amid severe hardships.

Friends of our family have a son, a missionary pilot, who just lost a leg in a devastating accident in New Guinea. He’s in intense pain, battling infections, and has a long road of recovery and totally different lifestyle ahead. Yet he and his family are the perfect examples of gratefulness and thankfulness. The parents have their son alive. The wife has her husband alive. The children have their dad alive. This godly man has the blessing of being able to continue raising and discipling his children and enjoying his loving wife and family. They are all so very grateful and express it continually. Only Jesus Christ living through us can turn the ungrateful beast within us to a beautiful heart of worship, thanksgiving and gratitude.

The way to foster that attitude of gratitude is by continually realizing our state — that we deserve nothing, yet God has given us everything. Through Jesus Christ, we have eternal life in paradise with our Savior. This life is just a blip in eternity, but it’s our opportunity to have an impact on our children and grandchildren for eternity. Pray with them, sing praises with them, love them, educate them, disciple them, build their character, point them to Christ.

As Americans celebrate Thanksgiving Day tomorrow, remembering how God has blessed this nation, let’s remember the even greater things for which we have to be thankful, no matter what part of the world we live in. Here’s a fun craft, keepsake and living tribute that will be fun for the grandchildren and help nurture a spirit of thankfulness. The finished product is pictured at the top of this blog. We did this last year and plan to do it again tomorrow.

Here’s how it works: Print off the pages, cut out the leaves and punch a hole in the top of each leaf. You can use a color printer or use b&w and have the children color them with a light highlighter so the text is still readable. Grab a branch from a tree outside and put it in a weighted vase. After the meal, have everyone write something they are thankful for — and why — on the back of one or more leaves. Then ask each person to read aloud the Scripture verse on the front of their leaf and what they wrote on the back before hanging it on the Thanksgiving Tree. Thank you, Ann Voskamp, for this lovely idea on how to keep a thankful spirit and nurture it in our children and grandchildren. (This printable craft is available in Spanish, too.)

http://www.aholyexperience.com/2012/11/a-christian-family-thanksgiving-activity-the-thanks-giving-tree-free-printable/

Have a blessed day of Thanksgiving tomorrow, whether you are celebrating our history in America, or whether you live elsewhere in the world and simply want to visibly live out a heart of thankfulness to God — an Attitude of Gratitude.

—   Barb Heki, for Grandparents of Homeschoolers™

Lyrics to “Give Thanks,” by Don Moen:

Give thanks with a grateful heart
Give thanks to the Holy One
Give thanks because He’s given Jesus Christ, His Son

And now let the weak say, “I am strong”
Let the poor say, “I am rich
Because of what the Lord has done for us”

Give thanks with a grateful heart
Give thanks to the Holy One
Give thanks because He’s given Jesus Christ, His Son

School has been under way for 2 months and the fresh excitement of a new school year has dissipated as the rigors of academics consume the days.

Time for Grandpa and Grandma to interject some FUN into the studies! Read on to glean some local and long-distance ideas for doing some creative, hands-on activities for all ages with one of the wonders of God’s creation — leaves!

Step 1: Go on a nature walk with the grandchildren and gather a wide variety of leaves as they turn colors and fall to the ground. If you live long-distance, gather enough of each variety for yourself and your grandchildren and have them do the same in their respective locales. Collect those evergreen leaves that don’t turn colors as well. If you live in a region where the leaves don’t change colors, or if the leaves have already fallen in your neck of the woods, ask a friend or relative from a deciduous-rich locale to send you some. Or, purchase a lovely variety of artificial leaves from a craft store. You could even print off leaves from free-image sites on the internet.

Step 2: Flatten the leaves between sheets of paper and bring or mail a set to each grandchild.

From this point, choose any number of leaf projects below and do them with your grandchildren. If you live long-distance, choose those that will work well to do via telephone or video chat.

Leaf Identification

Give your grandchildren some resources for identification: web searches, encyclopedia, local DNR offices, parks and recreation departments or county extension offices. Have your grandchildren keep track of which leaves they recognized without researching and which they had to look up. Glue the identified leaves to sheets of paper to keep in their science portfolio. Take these out at a later time and quiz them to see if they remember each leaf type. For older students, you can expand into researching the trees that each leaf came from or study the scientific parts of leaves and trees and learn the function of each part.

Crayon Leaf Art

On a newspaper-covered surface, arrange a few leaves on a sheet of white paper and sprinkle pieces of shaved color crayon pieces over the leaves and paper. Cover with a sheet of waxed paper, waxed side facing the leaves. Press a hot iron over the waxed paper until the crayon pieces melt. Let cool and pull off waxed paper to reveal a colorful piece of art. Have the grandchildren sign their masterpieces.

Leaf Designs

Look through the leaves and pick out some with a variety of shapes, curves and textures. Glue them onto a sheet of paper, placing the shapes in a way that creates a new design. For example, curved leaves could become rolling hills. A willow leaf could become a hammock placed horizontally between two long pine needles that represent trees. Have the grandchildren write a paragraph describing the scene they’ve created.

Magnified Drawings

Using a magnifying glass, or for older students a microscope, draw the veins and structure of the leaf that is more clearly visible when magnified. Contemplate the intricacy of God’s design that is not visible to the naked eye.

Rubbings

Place a leaf, or several leaves in a variety of shapes, between two pieces of white paper. Peel the paper off a crayon of your choice and rub the sides of it across the paper, making sure to cover the leaf area completely. A distinct impression of the leaf will emerge. Tell your grandchildren that this is similar to the process used in early letterpress printing, a type of relief printing. The very first Bible, the Gutenberg Bible, was printed using the letterpress technique. With older students, try the same thing using oil pastels. They also can get a rubbed image by placing a sheet of foil wrap on top of the leaves and using their fingers to press over the entire surface of leaves. The foil will take the shape of the leaves.

Leaf Bouquet

Grandchildren young and old can have fun designing a lovely leaf bouquet. Leaf length can be extended by gluing artificial stems onto the leaves. These can be twigs or colored pipe cleaners or anything they find around the house that works. Encourage them to be creative in adding embellishments to the richly colored leaves, such as feathers, or including a picture or note, fastening everything together with yarn or ribbon.

With these simple leaf projects, you will have taught them some research skills, botany, art, writing, history, printing and design! And in the process, you will have shown them the mighty works of God!

Celebrate with an all-time fall favorite — a cup of hot apple cider!

“He changes times and seasons.” — Daniel 2:21

     — Rich & Barb Heki, for Grandparents of Homeschoolers™