Plant a Thanksgiving Garden
Psalm 100
I Thessalonians 5:18
Someone e-mailed me what love means to 4 to 8 year old children.
“When my grandmother got arthritis, she couldn’t bend over and paint her toenails anymore. So my grandfather does it for her all the time, even when his hands got arthritis too. That’s love.
Rebecca age 8
“Love is when a girl puts on perfume and a boy puts on shaving cologne and they go out and smell each other.” Billy age 4
“Love is when you go out to eat and give somebody most of your French fries without making them give you any of theirs.”
Chrissy age 6
“Love is when you kiss all the time. Then when you get tired of kissing, you still want to be together and you talk more. My Mommy and Daddy are like that. They look gross when they kiss.” Emily age 8
A 4 year old boy lived next door neighbor to an elderly gentleman who had recently lost his wife. The young boy demonstrated love when he saw the neighbor sitting in his yard and crying. The little boy went into the gentleman’s yard, climbed onto his life, and just sat there.
When his Mother asked what the boy had said to the neighbor, the little boy said, “Noting, I just helped him cry.’
This morning I want to talk about “Planting a Family Thanksgiving Garden.” History teaches that as the family goes so goes the nation. Healthy families make healthy communities, schools and churches.
When I talk about the family I’m including one person families, single parent families, blended families and nuclear families with both a mom and dad in the home.
The Bible, God’s Word gives us the guidelines for planting a Family Thanksgiving garden.
Rich Soil. For a healthy productive garden we need rich soil. Where I grew up in Kansas there are some fields with dark black soil that produces great crops of corn and wheat.
Rich soil represents the foundation for a successful family. The building blocks for the foundation of a home is made up of thanksgiving and praise.
Psalm 100 verse 4 might be paraphrased this way, “Enter your home with thanksgiving, and go into every room with praise. Give thanks to God and bless his name.”
An attitude of thanksgiving can become a lifestyle. Praise is a reflection of a person’s heart. Thanksgiving and praise are the music of your soul.
Like Jesus we can look for the good in every situation.
• Jesus saw something beautiful in the sacred life of Mary Magdalene
• Jesus saw potential in the Samaritan woman at the well (John 4)
• Jesus saw potential for honesty and integrity beneath the façade of a tax-collector
An attitude of thanksgiving builds up and encourages everyone in the home. A vital faith in God builds a solid foundation for the home.
I was privileged to grow up in a home where my mother had a vital faith in the Lord. She gave me words of encouragement and instilled in me a “can do spirit.” Unfortunately my Dad tended to live a thankless life. His leadership and lifestyle filled the garden of our home with toxic soil.
Toxic Soil. Thankless people make the soil toxic in the family garden. Toxic soil does not produce a happy and healthy family. God is not acknowledged by thankless people. Thankless people end up with bitter hearts and shriveled souls. Thankless people become ingrown and selfish.
My father always looked at the glass half empty. Without God in his heart he looked at life colored by doubt and pessimism. He found fault with what my mother did, what my sister did and what I did. It was the prayer of my mother that turned the tide and sprinkled the toxic atmosphere of the home with sunshine of hope and optimism. From my home experience I determined by the grace of God to have a fun filled, positive family. Carollyn and I made it a practice over the years to provide a rich soil of encouragement and praise for each other and our children.
This Thanksgiving I encourage you to build your home on a rich soil foundation of thanksgiving and praise. Practice Psalm 100:4, “Enter your home with thanksgiving, and go into every room with praise. Give thanks to God and bless his name.” Also practice Psalm 34:1 “I will praise the Lord at all times, I will constantly speak his praises.”
Cultivate the Soil. To plant a family garden you need rich soil and you also need to cultivate the soil before planting seeds. The soil needs to be plowed up and prepared for planting the seeds.
One of the best ways to cultivate and prepare your family for healthy relationship is through prayer. Prayer is the primary tool for cultivation. The Apostle Paul gives excellent instruction for the family in I Thessalonians 5:16-18, “Always be joyful. Keep on praying. No mater what happens, always be thankful, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Jesus Christ.”
Praying and thankful parents create an atmosphere in the home that help develop healthy and well balanced children.
As our four children were growing up Carollyn and I made it a practice to take turns having bedtime prayers with each of our children individually. We did this up through their Junior High years.
This past August we have 11 of our grandchildren with us for nearly two weeks. A highlight of each day was the evening Bible story I read and prayer time we had with different grandchildren praying each night.
Praying families create a positive atmosphere in the home that provides healthy cultivation of relationships and builds a cohesive family unit.
Plant the Seeds. In planting a garden you first need good soil, soil that is healthy and not toxic. Second you cultivate the soil and third you plant the seed.
There is a right time and a wrong time to plant. In Kansas after harvesting wheat in the summer around July you then plow the ground and work the ground and get it ready for drilling the seed. You plant the seed in September and pray for rain and snow to bring moisture and sunshine and then in the Spring you begin to see green wheat cover the ground. The green wheat grows two or three feet and by May it is starting to ripen and by the end of June it is golden in color and ready for harvest.
Planting the seed can be compared to giving Biblical and moral instructions to your children. The admonition given by the Lord to Jewish parents is still relevant to all parents today: Deuteronomy 6:5-7 – “And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul and all your strength. And you must commit yourselves wholeheartedly to these commands. I am giving you today. Repeat them again and again to your children.”
The primary responsibility of parents is to teach their children the commandments of the Lord. And we know that godly character is more caught than taught. The old motto, “Do as I say and not as I do,” doesn’t work in the home.
Parenting is a wonderful privilege, but also a challenging task. Parenting is an awesome responsibility but a rewarding experience. In some ways we have to admit that our children are a mirror of what we have taught them by our words and our actions.
One of the greatest gifts you can gift your children is to demonstrate love to their father or mother..
The awesome responsibility of parenting requires teamwork with both parents doing their part.
I read about a husband and wife that worked out their chores by drawing straws. One morning after a terrible snowstorm, Susan was outside shoveling her driveway. She stopped to wave to a neighbor, and he asked, her why her husband wasn’t out there helping her with the chore.
She explained that one of them had to stay inside and take care of the children, so they drew straws to see who would to out and shovel. “Sorry about your bad luck,” he said. Susan replied, “Don’t be sorry. I won.”
As a parent we daily ask for wisdom to provide the instruction and guidance our children need. Proverbs 22:6 is a promise: “Train up your child in the way he/she should go, and when he/she is old he/she will not turn from it.” As a parent your task is to train up your child according to his/her God given abilities and guide them into finding God’s purpose for your child’s life.
To Plant a productive garden you need good soil, proper cultivation, plant the seed at the right time, and third trust God for proper weather.
Healthy Climate. You can do everything right in planting a garden, but if you don’t have proper rain and sunshine you will not have a healthy crop.
A proper climate in the home is the work of the Holy Spirit.
A businessman purchased a tropical plant for his office. He gave the plant water, plant food and sunlight. In two weeks the plant was turning brown and dying.
He called the florist where he purchased the plant and explained his problem. The florist asked, “Are you misting the plant. Your tropical plant needs mist. Take a spray bottle and spray water on the plant.” The business man began to mist the plant and in two weeks it revived and was green and healthy.
The plant needed a proper climate of high humidity. A proper climate is compared to the example you live before your children.
As parents you help create a proper climate by just being with your children. A survey of parents of adolescent children showed that parents who are available to their teens in the morning and after school and evening had children that were more cooperative and respectful than children with absent parents. Selfless love takes time for your family.
You develop a proper climate by giving consistent discipline and set boundaries according to the age of your children.
A father shared the following letter his college age daughter had sent to him.
Dad:
I’ve decided to sit down and write you a love letter. You are so special to me and I’m afraid to leave things unsaid. I have so much respect for you and your faith. The more time I spend around people claiming to be Christians, the more I realize how truly remarkable you are. I say it again and again, meaning it more each time – you are the only person I know who practices everything you preach without having to grit your teeth and angrily struggle the entire way. You’ve discovered the secret of the “easy yoke” and I admire you greatly for it.
You are one of my best friends. I feel comfortable with you and enjoy our instant level of communication and shared sense of humor. You’re my favorite person to go walking with through the woods, collecting leaves, nuts and rocks along the way – I enjoy our buddy time – I treasure it in my heart.
You are one of the few who accept me as I am – not trying to turn me into an ideal or a carbon copy of themselves. I appreciate that’s a true love who accepts the whole instead of just the happy.”
Any parent would by happy to receive a letter like that from their child.
This Thanksgiving why not begin planning a garden of wonderful memories for your family.
Rich soil – live with an attitude of thanksgiving and praise
Cultivate - if you not already praying with your children and family begin to make prayer a priority for your home
Plant Seed – read Bible stories to your children and provide Biblical instruction on how to honor the Lord and live for Jesus
Healthy Climate – do your part by living a God honoring life and then trust God with the results.
