Our hearts are filled with thankfulness

The Valentine Family decided to follow suit with the thankful tree craze that everyone & their mom pinned on Pinterest.  Last year I was thinking about what we could start as a November/Thanksgiving tradition in our home & when I came across this, I was quite excited to say the least!  Thankfulness is something that I desire to cultivate in our home & in our hearts.

This year, we started on the 1st of November. I arranged our tree, cut all our "leaves" & watched Charlotte lay them out in all sorts of arrangements while I cut the ribbon. She so enjoyed "helping" me & I enjoyed her "help". Each morning or evening, we talked about things that we were thankful for that day & selected one to write down as a family. We did let Charlotte choose 3 for herself....sweet & funny choices, just like her! 

Recounting a month of thankfulness in our home:

1.  God's faithfulness
2.  Unity in our marriage
3.  Testing & trials in our life
4.  Trick or Treat - Charlotte
5.  God's patience with us
6.  Health
7.  God - Charlotte
8.  How much Charlotte loves Eloise
9.  Friendship
10.  God's kindness towards us
11.  Freedom
12.  Laughter
13.  The local church
14.  New life
15.  Rest 
16. Our Life Group
17. God's Story
18. Our jobs & the ability to work
19. Soccer ball - Charlotte
20. Beautiful weather
21. Family Fun Week - Daddy off work!
22. The blessing of children
23. The sunrise

Day 14- I got to spend an afternoon with Traci & baby Piper, just snuggling on the little one while a tired mama
got some rest. I know Eloise is only 6 months old but how quickly we forget the sweetness of a newborn baby!



Day 7- When she says "God" right now, it acutally sounds like "Don" not sure why but she is consistent with that response!  Yes Charlotte, we are most thankful for God or Don : )

Our plan is to read these aloud sometime during our Thanksgiving celebration. In the upcoming years, we hope to give each child their own set of "leaves" so they can write what they are thankful for.


As we shared each day what we wanted included on our tree, we quickly saw that each thing could be directly traced to God's goodness. Just a few weeks ago, I sang the following song with our worship team at Celebration Community Church.  It has been stuck in my head, yet another thing to be thankful for.  The words turn my affection towards Jesus & I pray they will do the same for you.

“My Heart Is Filled with Thankfulness“
Words and Music by Keith Getty & Stuart Townend


My heart is filled with thankfulness
To Him who bore my pain;
Who plumbed the depths of my disgrace
And gave me life again;
Who crushed my curse of sinfulness
And clothed me in His light
And wrote His law of righteousness
With pow’r upon my heart.

My heart is filled with thankfulness
To Him who walks beside;
Who floods my weaknesses with strength
And causes fears to fly;
Whose ev’ry promise is enough
For ev’ry step I take,
Sustaining me with arms of love
And crowning me with grace.

My heart is filled with thankfulness
To him who reigns above,
Whose wisdom is my perfect peace,
Whose ev’ry thought is love.
For ev’ry day I have on earth
Is given by the King;
So I will give my life, my all,
To love and follow him.

The LORD is my strength and my shield;

in him my heart trusts, and I am helped;

my heart exults, and with my song I give thanks to him. 

Psalm 28:7