Thanksgiving (And Turkeys!) Through Prayer

Since this is a month of thanksgiving, I wanted to do a Family Night discussing one of the greatest ways we have of showing gratitude, prayer.  I wanted to get back to the basics of prayer and stress the importance of gratitude, which is one of the most valuable personality traits we can have.  Personally, it has been the greatest tool in fighting Depression.  I also wanted to make some turkey art to put in our front window, so this is what I came up with...a paper turkey that explains the parts of prayer.

 

We started by making the face of the turkey as we remembered who we speak to when we pray (hence, the beak) and look to for answers (and the eyes.)

The body of the turkey represents the body of the prayer.  That is hopefully the majority of it!  For every thing they said they were thankful for they got a feather to put on their turkey.

  It was nice to remind them that while we are thankful for a lot of the same things every day, it's also good to come up with new things we are grateful for and mention those too.  We got pretty creative!

Next we added feet to represent the last two parts of prayer, asking for blessings and closing in the name of Jesus Christ.  The mercy of God & Atonement of Christ are our foundation, what we rely on in our lives.  One foot represented the blessings of God.  We taught how near the end of our prayer we ask Him for blessings we hope he will bestow in His wisdom if it is what we need.  I explained we don't always get exactly what we ask for, but since He is our Father we trust His wisdom.  The other foot represents ending our prayer in the name of Jesus Christ, our Savior.  

I was really touched by the following quote from the recent General Conference of the LDS church: "One of the most meaningful things we can do as parents is teach our children the power of prayer, not just the routine of prayer...As parents, we can teach our children to pray for things of eternal consequence- to pray for the strength to be morally clean in a very challenging world, to be obedient, and to have the courage to stand for the right."

This quote comes from a talk titled "Parents: The Prime Gospel Teachers of Their Children" that you can read here.  If there is anything I hope I can teach my children it's the importance of fervent prayer.  When we give thanks we improve the quality of our own lives.  We see the good we sometimes overlook.  Praying gives thanks to the ultimate Giver.  When we pray we can talk to someone who understands us and loves us unconditionally.  And when we choose to ask for those things we feel line up with His will for us, we are a greater force for hope and good than we can ever be on our own.  Hope you have a happy FHE!  Love, Eva