by Heather Melton, UTO staff officer

This November, we invite and encourage you to place an emphasis on gratitude and thankfulness in your personal lives and communities. We are overjoyed to offer various resources to guide adults and children to dedicating November to practicing a grateful heart. 

The November Gratitude Challenge is four weeks of practices online and at home to grow a more grateful heart by responding to God’s gift of creation. Activities will encourage you to engage with actions that not only give thanks for creation but seek to embed practices around conservation into your daily life as ways of giving thanks to God for the gifts that creation brings. The Gratitude Challenge is designed to be customizable so that everyone who participates can grow gratitude in a way that works for them. You may use the booklet individually or invite a small group to participate together. You can participate as much as you want during the week — remember that this resource should not add stress to your daily life by feeling as though you have “one more thing to check off,” but should instead encourage growth of gratitude.

We are also happy to offer a pair of resources for children to practice gratitude during November and to center Thanksgiving on thankfulness. There is a Thanksgiving Lesson for Families and a Thanksgiving Lesson for Faith Formation Leaders. The lessons are similar but are designed to be guided by families and faith formation leaders, respectively. Both materials include an introductory lesson on gratitude, two crafts, and a closing lesson on how to continue practicing gratitude after Thanksgiving.

We hope that you will participate alongside of us this November as we all focus on growing gratitude. Be sure to share these resources with others, share your participation on social media, and let us know how you centered this Thanksgiving on thankfulness.