A Thankful Heart

Bible Study for Women Directions

1. Thanksgiving All Year Round

Point to the slide.

SAY: What would that look like-to have the Thanksgiving spirit all year round?

Have women form small groups and let them talk about the two questions on the slide. After five to ten minutes, come back as a larger group and have one person from each of the smaller groups share a couple favorite traditions and ways we could have the Thanksgiving spirit more throughout the year.

2. Thankfulness

SAY: There are two verses in Philippians we'll chew on during our time together that will help us think about being thankful in our everyday lives.

Read or ask a volunteer to read the verses on the slide. Then have women write the verses down in their Personal Guidebooks on page 5 so they can refer to them throughout today's study. Have women get the three different ribbons from the table. (They need one of each color.)

SAY: These are our reminder ribbons. They're going to remind us of three different aspects Paul shows us about being thanks-givers.

• The blue ribbon is our "First-Thing Ribbon."

Ask the women to help each other tie this ribbon around their wrists. Ask the women to close their eyes and picture someone they love who doesn't live close by. Keeping their eyes closed, have them continue thinking about that person. Wait for about 30 seconds. Ask them to open their eyes and write down in their Guidebook who they pictured and the first thing they thought of when they pictured that person.

Give the women a minute to write down their responses.

SAY: The first thing that comes to Paul's mind when he thinks about his beloved friends in Philippi is how thankful he is for them.

Reread Philippians 1:3: "Every time I think of you, I give thanks to my God."

SAY: Paul shows us in this verse that one aspect of being a good thanks-giver is to first thank God. Our blue ribbon is a reminder to first and foremost thank God. (Hold up your wrist with a blue ribbon on it.) Thanking God needs to come to the top of our list when we pray.

• The green ribbon is our "Every-Time Ribbon."

Have the women help each other tie on the green ribbon.

SAY: Paul also shows us how being thanks-givers is not a one-Thursday- in-November arrangement with God. It's an everyday, "every-time" piece of our prayer life.

Reread Philippians 1:3.

SAY: When we reread this verse, we see thanksgiving is the first thing Paul does and he does it every time. He shows us not only that it is a priority but a repetitive necessity.

Give an example of this. You can use the example below or come up with your own.

SAY: The need to continually repeat our thanks to God is kind of like reminding your child to say thank you to a carpool mom every time he or she is driven to school. You don't tell your child to say "thanks" once at the beginning of the year. "Thanks Mrs. Jones for giving me a ride to school every Tuesday and Thursday this year." No, you teach him or her to say thanks every time they're given a ride. Paul shows us it's the same for us with God. We need to say thanks anew each day.

• The purple ribbon is our "All Ribbon."

Have the women help each other tie on the purple ribbon.

Reread Philippians 4:6: "Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done."

SAY: Paul is telling us here that every time we go to God with our needs we are to take time to thank him for all he has done.

Pass out small pieces of paper and pens so each woman has three pieces. Ask the women to write down three prayer needs they have right now so each piece of paper has one need. Let the women know these prayer needs will be mixed together then read out loud. If necessary, give examples of prayer needs, such as "for our finances," "for my son to make new friends," or "for my husband to find a job." Say: Paul shows us a two-part formula: Tell God what we need + thank Him for all he has done. We're going to take the needs we've written down and practice this formula. Have the women fold their pieces of paper and collect the folded pieces of paper in a brown lunch bag. (Let women know they won't need to "own-up" to the prayers they wrote down. This is just an exercise to get them practicing Paul's formula.) Hand the brown bag to a woman in the group, and ask her to pull out one piece of paper and read it. Then practice together what it would look like using Paul's formula. Have different women pull prayer needs from the bag and practice together for about five to 10 minutes.

Example of Practicing Paul's Formula:

Sample prayer need: "For our finances and my husband's unemployment. We're really struggling this month."

Practice the formula: Pray for the need + thank God for what he has done.

• "Help us, Lord, to pay our bills this month + thank you, God, for your faithfulness in the past."

• "Help me sleep better and not to worry so much + thank you for caring about my every need."

• "I pray for my husband's interview tomorrow. I pray this job is a good fit for him and that he's offered the job + thank you for the job contacts you've given so far."

SAY: The formula is very simple. We all need to get better at thinking about how we can thank God when we pray for our needs. The bottom line is: We need to think about thanking more! (Hold up your wrist with the three ribbons.) Now that we have our three ribbons that remind us of some key ingredients in thankfulness, how do we get there? Let's learn some lessons from Madame Blueberry.

3. Lessons From Madame Blueberry

Show the beginning segment of VeggieTales: Madame Blueberry, where Madame Blueberry sings the "I'm So Blue" song (about five minutes into it). Play until the end of the song. If you'd like, have women nibble on blueberry snacks as they watch! After the clip, explain how Madame Blueberry tried in vain to find fulfillment in her life through buying more stuff. But it's a thankful heart that yields happiness-not stuff!

Have volunteers read the following short vignettes (or read them yourself).

Amy

Amy always compared herself to others. She envied her best friend, Jillian, the most. Jillian had a seemingly perfect figure and an amazing wardrobe to go with it. To deal with her envy, Amy would spend money she didn't have on clothes she didn't need. Shopping always made her feel so much better. Her mood was always lifted when she came home with a great new outfit. But the exhilaration was short lived, and the need for another, cuter outfit came whenever she had a bad day or was feeling bad about herself.

Sandy

Sandy married a guy who didn't have a lot of money and whose line of work would never make them wealthy. It was hard for Sandy to watch her friends' husbands making a lot of money. When one of her friends, Dawn, bought a huge, beautiful home, Sandy could hardly stand it. She coveted the home with its wrap-around porch and enormous state-of-the-art kitchen. Her feelings of jealousy strained her friendship with Dawn. It also wreaked havoc in her marriage because she continually made comments to her husband about how little they had compared to all of her friends.

Bella

Something inside Bella's heart felt empty and unsatisfied. She couldn't put her finger on it, she just wanted more. But she wasn't sure what she wanted more of. She had a good job; she had three healthy kids and a doting husband. Why was she so unsatisfied? Her dissatisfaction made her depressed. She knew there had to be more to life, but what? Where? She searched for an answer. Maybe if she exercised and got in really good shape she would feel better about things. Maybe if she and her husband took exciting trips she would feel more fulfilled. Maybe if she pursued another degree she would have more satisfaction. Her search led her down many empty trails, and each time she was left feeling like something was still missing.

SAY: Think about these different women. How can you relate to them? Shop to drown out your blues? Covet your neighbors stuff? Unsatisfied with what you have?

Have women return to their small groups and discuss the "More, More, More" Nudge Questions on page 6 of their Guidebooks. Allow five to 10 minutes for their discussion.

SAY: When we're unsatisfied with what we have, looking for something else or coveting more, we can't be thankful.

Ask for a volunteer to come stand next to you. When she's standing there, ask her to stay standing next to you and also go stand at the back of the room. (Of course she won't be able to do it.)

SAY: You can't stand in two places at the same time, right? It's the same with being a thanks-giver. You can't be like Madame Blueberry and be a thanks-giver.

4. Practice

SAY: It takes intentional practice to become a good thanks-giver. Listen to how one woman practiced.

Read the following story.

SAY: I was very in love with my husband, but he fell in love with a younger woman and moved out. He stopped supporting me and our two children, and I had to go back to work. I loved staying at home with my kids, but now I work over 50 hours a week and seem to miss out on so much. Sometimes I feel myself stuck in the miry pit of my life. One thing that helps me get out of the pit is to think about all I do have. Every morning as I drive into work, I make myself tell the Lord everything I'm thankful for. I'm thankful I have a good job so I can provide for my kids. I'm thankful for the great friends and the support I have. I'm thankful my kids are doing really well in school and that I have a very close relationship with them. I'm thankful for the great school they are in and all the friends they have. I just keep going down the list and focus on everything I have to be thankful for. By the time I get to work my heart is full and I actually feel really thankful.

Ask one of the women to read out loud the "A-Z Thanks-Giver Ideas" on page 6 of the Guidebook.

On page 8 of their Guidebooks, have women trace one of their hands. Tell the women to write down five ideas in the five fingers they would like to practice. They can use the ideas from the "A-Z Thanks-Giver Ideas" list or they can come up with their own.

5. Why Should We Become Better Thanks-Givers?

SAY: We've covered how to be a good thanks-giver with our blue, green, and purple ribbons. We've covered when and where through our -brainstorming and practicing. Now let's look at why we should become good thanks-givers. One simple reason is because we want to experience the Joy Ride like Paul. There he was in prison. He'd lost his freedom, he was eating prison food, he was desperately lonely for his friends, and yet he was brimming with joy. Why so much joy in the midst of his hardly ideal circumstances? A big piece of the reason is because he was a very good thanks-giver. Let's hear more about this from a woman's perspective.

Before this session, ask a woman from your group to share a story from her life about a time she learned to thank God at all times. 

6. Wrap It Up

To remember the significance of their ribbons, have the women look at the slide and write down in their Guidebooks on page 8 what each ribbon represents. Tell them that at the end of the day when they take off their ribbons, they can place them in their Guidebooks as a reminder to be thankful.

SAY: The woman in the story we just heard, like Madame Blueberry, learned that a thankful heart yields a joyful heart.

Here's a challenge for you for this week: Do one thing you wrote on your hand to practice being a thanks-giver this week and come back and share it with your group next week.

Before the women head out, close your time together in prayer.