A heart of thanks

My mouth begins to water when I think about pumpkin pie and how close it is to Thanksgiving. However, when I'm at the grocery store or our local craft store, it appears as if I've missed it all together. I won't harp on the ridiculousness of Christmas decorations and music adorning stores on November 1st, but it's rather frustrating! Thanks to retailers' money-hungry tactics to breeze through Thanksgiving, I'm finding it difficult to teach Cohen what Thanksgiving is and the importance of stopping and thanking our Lord for "every good and perfect gift that comes from Him." (James 1:17)

So we have begun the journey of teaching our selfish-by-nature two-year-old to stop and look around at all God has given him and give Him thanks. We are reading books about it, doing crafts to emphasize it, and helping him think about what it means to be thankful. I pray these early efforts help him to develop a thankful heart! Today we shopped for our Operation Christmas Child box for a "little boy who doesn't get Christmas presents." He really got into picking things out for him. It was sweet! However, we got home and he wanted to play with a little car we got for the box. I let him, only after reminding him it wasn't his and he would have to put it in the box tonight before bed. He got rather attached, most likely because he knew it was a temporary toy, and had a melt down before his nap. Realizing just before naptime wasn't the time to discuss it, I waited until later to readdress the issue. To my surprise, just before bedtime he wanted to go find the car and put it in the box "for the little boy." I was humbled by his concern for the car and pray this was just the beginning of him having a heart to give! I tell this story, not to brag on me or him, but as a first memory of him willingly giving something for someone he doesn't even know. May the Lord draw Cohen into a relationship with Himself that he recognizes all he has as blessings and desires to give out of the abundance God has given him. And may Hector and I model that before him and lead him to generously give.