Just found this easy tutorial on a way cute star for the top of a Christmas tree. I wanted a natural looking one for our Thankful Tree for this month and think it turned out well!
I am trying a new thing this year where each Monday before Thanksgiving we do a lesson on Giving Thanks...for family, for God and Jesus Christ, for the beauty of the earth, and for others. There is a story and a scripture for each one, and then afterwards we all write (or draw) something we are thankful for (having to do with the discussed topic) on the paper ornaments and hang them on the tree.
I love it because it is helping me think of my blessings more than just on Thanksgiving Day. It's been especially good timing this year...I was quite down after the election. The moment they called Ohio in Obama's favor and determined that he won I felt like the world was going to end. As dramatic as that sounds, I really was devastated. Mostly because besides voting, as much as I believed in what Mitt Romney stood for, believed in his economic policies, believed he would be far superior to Barack Obama as the President of our country, and knew he was the only hope of bringing America back to where it needed to be to succeed...I did nothing! I didn't have a sign in my yard, no sticker on my car, only posted a few things on my FB page, didn't volunteer to make calls for the campaign, didn't donate money, didn't do squat. My husband assured me that I surely couldn't have made a big enough difference to really change things...and while that may be true, I could have done something and who knows what would have happened? If nothing else at least I would have felt like I did my part. Lesson learned I guess. But neat for me, and on a spiritual note, the next day as I was studying the Book of Mormon reading in Alma 5 where the prophet Alma is asking, when we get to the judgement day and are before our Lord, is he going to say you are blessed because your works have been good and righteous while on the earth, or are you going to feel guilty and know that you didn't do what you were supposed to do?! It hit me so hard, that the feeling I felt about the election was just a sample of how awful it would be, to get before Christ and know that I didn't follow him as well as I could have! That I didn't do those things that I was prompted to do and didn't live the way I knew I should have lived. That would be THE WORST! As horrible as I felt after the election, oh I can only imagine how awful this would feel.
Grateful for the ways that the Lord teaches us. Grateful for the scriptures and the insights they can give. Grateful that while the election didn't pan out the way I personally would have liked, that Mitt Romney was a good example of light and goodness and won't stop doing good in the world just because he wasn't elected President. Wish I could thank him personally.
Happy Thanksgiving!
I am trying a new thing this year where each Monday before Thanksgiving we do a lesson on Giving Thanks...for family, for God and Jesus Christ, for the beauty of the earth, and for others. There is a story and a scripture for each one, and then afterwards we all write (or draw) something we are thankful for (having to do with the discussed topic) on the paper ornaments and hang them on the tree.
I love it because it is helping me think of my blessings more than just on Thanksgiving Day. It's been especially good timing this year...I was quite down after the election. The moment they called Ohio in Obama's favor and determined that he won I felt like the world was going to end. As dramatic as that sounds, I really was devastated. Mostly because besides voting, as much as I believed in what Mitt Romney stood for, believed in his economic policies, believed he would be far superior to Barack Obama as the President of our country, and knew he was the only hope of bringing America back to where it needed to be to succeed...I did nothing! I didn't have a sign in my yard, no sticker on my car, only posted a few things on my FB page, didn't volunteer to make calls for the campaign, didn't donate money, didn't do squat. My husband assured me that I surely couldn't have made a big enough difference to really change things...and while that may be true, I could have done something and who knows what would have happened? If nothing else at least I would have felt like I did my part. Lesson learned I guess. But neat for me, and on a spiritual note, the next day as I was studying the Book of Mormon reading in Alma 5 where the prophet Alma is asking, when we get to the judgement day and are before our Lord, is he going to say you are blessed because your works have been good and righteous while on the earth, or are you going to feel guilty and know that you didn't do what you were supposed to do?! It hit me so hard, that the feeling I felt about the election was just a sample of how awful it would be, to get before Christ and know that I didn't follow him as well as I could have! That I didn't do those things that I was prompted to do and didn't live the way I knew I should have lived. That would be THE WORST! As horrible as I felt after the election, oh I can only imagine how awful this would feel. Grateful for the ways that the Lord teaches us. Grateful for the scriptures and the insights they can give. Grateful that while the election didn't pan out the way I personally would have liked, that Mitt Romney was a good example of light and goodness and won't stop doing good in the world just because he wasn't elected President. Wish I could thank him personally.
Happy Thanksgiving!
