Thanksgiving can be hard.
Preparation, cooking, family tension, and travel are all things that can make Thanksgiving a difficult holiday.
In fact, one study shows that “three in five Americans say they’d rather do something else rather than reflect on what they’re thankful for on Thanksgiving.” Instead, most people would rather watch football, watch streaming media, read a book, or spend time with a pet. (click here to read the article)
This Wednesday (instead of normal youth group), Grace is putting on a Thanksgiving Eve Online Worship Service at 7pm (it’ll go on our Facebook page, Youtube, and website). This will help you gather as a family, worship Jesus, and pray over the time that we will be having the next day with our families.
Even if you don’t participate in the online service, we want you to be able to have these questions that you can ask with your family to encourage flourishing rather than stress on Thanksgiving:
5 Questions to Encourage Family Conversation on Thursday
- What’s your favorite Thanksgiving food?
- What’s the happiest Thanksgiving memory of your childhood?
- Who is the most consistently grateful person you know?
- What’s the one experience you’ve had or the one thing you’ve learned this year for which you are most thankful?
- If you could thank one person today—near or far, living or dead—for their influence on your life, who would that person be? (Be sure to tell WHY!)
It’s the little things.
These questions might not transform your whole holiday, but they have the potential to create a few small moments of connection and gratefulness. Moments like that are what help families flourish.
We hope you find the opportunity to participate on Wednesday, or use these questions with your family on Thursday. If you do, we’d love to hear what the experience was like.