Join us at IM in a Thankful Hearts challenge each Thursday in the month of November.
We want to share creative ways you can have a thankful heart. Below, we provided FIVE “thankful hearts” ideas that can be done individually, as a family, in your small groups, or at work throughout November. We hope these activities inspire thankfulness in your heart this month.
You can also follow IM on social media (@imincorg) where we will feature each idea that corresponds with every Thursday. We would love to hear from you about which days you are participating in or other ideas you may have for the month.
Begin the month of November with a thankful heart by creating a thankfulness pumpkin. You can do this simple craft with your family, Sunday school class, coworkers, or by yourself. We have two options of thankfulness pumpkins you can easily create, or you can come up with an idea of your own to accomplish the same thing. Use one of the ideas below to ignite a thankful heart by listing all of the things you’re thankful for on the pumpkin. Keep the pumpkin somewhere you will see each day to be reminded of how much you have to be thankful for.
Build your own Thankfulness Pumpkin:
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- Materials needed:
—6-8 strips of orange paper (18-20 inches long)
—Green paper (for leaves)
—Green pipe cleaners for stem
—Hole punch
—2 metal brads
—Markers
Spend time thinking about things that you are thankful for and write two on each strip of paper, on both ends of the same side. Punch a hole in the center of each strip and attach them with the thankful words all facing the same direction. Next, punch holes at the end of each strip. One by one, bring them up to make a sphere (the pumpkin), securing with the second brad at the top. Wrap the pipe cleaner around the top brad and shape it to look like a stem. Add some green leaves to the top.
This year, the IM office staff participated by writing items they are thankful for on each of the paper slips that fold to form a pumpkin. Each of their pumpkins are displayed on their desks.
Buy your own Thankfulness Pumpkin:
- Buy a pumpkin at the store or local fall festival location to write on with a sharpie and display it. Last year, the IM office staff participated by writing one thing each day they were thankful for and by the end of the month, their pumpkins were full.
On November 9, take a moment to send a personal message to a special person in your life expressing how thankful you are for them. Whether it’s through a text message, direct message, handwritten letter or card (which is always a nice surprise), or an email, take a moment on this day to encourage someone by telling them why you are thankful for them. This may be a catalyst for reaching out more often to close friends and family to express your gratitude for who they are and for all they do.
On November 16, IM will post on social media (Facebook and Instagram) a picture of the IM heart mugs from missionaries. On this post, you will be invited to tag a friend in the comment section to let them know you’re thankful for them and when you do this, you will be entered into a giveaway. The giveaway winner will be randomly selected from the comments (who participated in tagging) and will win the IM heart mug. We hope that this will be a post that will have a domino effect of “thankful hearts” spreading thankfulness to many through the tagging. Be on the lookout to enter to win through our post that day!
On November 23, we want to invite YOU to post a photo of one thing you are thankful for on social media. From a loved one to a good cup of coffee, to a Bible verse, or a place that inspires you, we want to flood social media with thankful hearts. You can tag us (@imincorg) to join the challenge!
How it works:
- Take a photo (or use a previous photo you have in your camera roll).
- Upload your photo to your social media channel of choice (Instagram, Twitter, Facebook…or all three).
- In your caption, share why you’re thankful for what you’re sharing.
- Tag IM (type @imincorg) and use the hashtag #imgivethanks in the caption of your post.
- Invite your friends to participate with you.
- Enjoy content from your friends and family, and let God use this time to encourage your heart with thankfulness.
Be contagious! Let thankfulness spread from your heart to the ends of the earth. If you don’t want to post your own, feel free to simply share IM’s post for the day!
On November 30, take a moment of your day to pause and pray. Whether it’s in the car going to work or school drop-offs, in the morning drinking your coffee or before bed, take time in prayer. With thankful hearts, we can partner in prayer with those who have sacrificed everything to move overseas and dedicate their lives to sharing the Gospel. With more than 3 billion unreached people in the world, you can partner with IM in prayer to take the Gospel to the Ends of the Earth. To learn more about unreached people, other fun country facts, and to learn all about our IM missionaries, field workers, and partners, you can send us an email at [email protected] to receive one (or a bundle) of our free IM Travel Guides. This can be a great resource to spark missions-focused conversations, learn more about the countries where IM is present, and regularly partner in prayer with IM.
