By Heather Melton, UTO staff officer
Back by popular demand, UTO gratitude resources for Lent are now available at unitedthankoffering.org/lent. The materials have been expanded and updated to better support those congregations that use UTO as their Lenten discipline. For children, we’ve created a lesson plan that can be used at Sunday School or home. The at-home version can easily be printed out and mailed or emailed to families. Children will create a paper chain that helps them count down to Easter. Each day they remove a link from the chain and write or draw something they are thankful for on the paper before putting it into a Blue Box that they have transformed into a bunny.
For adults, we’ve got a journal that takes you through each day of Lent with weekly themes to deepen your practice of gratitude. For those of you who liked the calendar where you counted things, this still allows you to count things, but it also works just as well for those who journal or want to take on journaling for Lent. Perhaps the most important part of the Lenten materials for adults is the encouragement to practice self-care each week. Especially during Lent when we are encouraging people to take on a new discipline or give something up, we need to remember that Sundays are not counted during Lent and can serve as a powerful reminder to take care of ourselves. We hope that you will download all the resources. Let us know what you think about them and if there is more we can do to help support your congregation in Lent.