In his prayer to God in Psalm 90, Moses says, “Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.”
Our little homeschool has been numbering days since September, and we recently celebrated my 5-year-old’s 100th day of pre-Kindergarten.
Laurel had been carefully counting and greatly anticipating special math projects and fun activities for the milestone day.
Since I have been counting to 1,000 myself (inspired by the book One Thousand Gifts), I decided to add a Bible lesson to our 100th day lesson plans. Psalm 100, a favorite of mine, is a psalm for giving thanks and a great one to memorize.
Psalm 100
Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth.
Worship the LORD with gladness;
come before Him with joyful songs.
Know that the LORD is God.
It is He who made us, and we are His;
We are His people, the sheep of His pasture.
Enter His gates with thanksgiving
and His courts with praise;
give thanks to Him and praise His name.
For the LORD is good and His love endures forever;
His faithfulness continues through all generations.
After the girls and I read Psalm 100 together, we talked about giving thanks to God and counting the ways He loves us. We discussed the Israelites en route to the Promised Land and how they had not given thanks to God and had not trusted Him, even though He had faithfully provided everything they needed. We discussed how grumbling and complaining displeases God and how thankfulness pleases Him.
We also talked about how long counting to 100 days took. We did count 100 days, but we couldn’t count forever. Forever is much, much longer than 100 days, and God’s love and faithfulness endures forever. Forever!
I gave the girls this special sheet to help them start counting and giving thanks for 100 gifts from God. (You can download the PDF to use with your children if you click here.)
In Colossians 3:15-17, Paul encourages us to be thankful and to sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs to God with gratitude in our hearts, giving thanks to God the Father through the Lord Jesus Christ.
We put this idea into practice by singing praises along with Maranatha Music’s “He Hath Made Me Glad” and Chris Tomlin’s “Forever” — the lyrics of both songs include strong ties to Psalm 100.
Here’s a downloadable version of Psalm 100 to help with memorization. By the way, this week I’ll be posting more photos and downloadable materials from our 100th day, so check back often!
In the meantime, check out these other posts on giving thanks to God.
Starlight Writer 