Category: Thanks/Thanksgiving

Christmas, Holidays (Other), Thanks/Thanksgiving

Holy Holidays: 149 Christian-Owned Businesses to Support while You Christmas Shop

Michelle Lesley

This article will be pinned to the top of the blog until closer to Christmas so you can easily locate it for shopping. If you’re looking for my most recent article, keep scrolling. It immediately follows this one.

It’s (almost) Black Friday! Time to shop til you drop…into your favorite comfy chair, fire up ye olde internet, and check out the deals at these businesses owned by some of your brothers and sisters in Christ.

There’s nothing wrong with shopping at a big box store that’s advertising great deals or supporting the mom and pop shop down the street, but if you see something you like for a good price at one of these online stores, why not throw a little business to family? Galatians 6:10 says:

So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.

See an opportunity? Grab it and do good to someone in the household of faith.

All the disclaimers:

🎄 Here’s how this list came about: Every year, I put out a general call on social media and the blog asking people to recommend Christian-owned businesses for this article. Well, you know how things on social media get shared around to a friend of a friend and aunt Myrtle’s third cousin’s step-nephew’s veterinarian. So what I’m saying is, while the people who recommended or own these businesses say that these are Christian-owned businesses, I can’t vouch for the actual, day to day spiritual state of any of the recommenders or owners. I’ve checked out each business website as best I can to make sure none of them promote anything unbiblical (giving the benefit of the doubt when possible – these are gifts, not sermons), but I can’t tell you whether or not Stan of “Stan’s Snow Shovels” is a faithful member of his local church.

•If the theology of the business owner is extremely important to you, I urge you to contact him/her directly to inquire before making your purchase.

•I would strongly encourage you to thoroughly vet the theology of any Christian author or musician listed below whose book, music, or other materials you’re considering purchasing.

•If you do see something blatantly unbiblical (for example: support of homosexuality, abortion, clear heresy, promotion of false teachers, etc.) on one of these sites (or on the business owner’s social media), it’s possible I missed it or it was added after I vetted the site. Please let me know and I’ll check it out.

🎄 These are Christian-owned businesses, but the products they make are not all necessarily “Christian” (i.e. they don’t all have Bible verses or Christian sayings on them).

🎄 Take the category listings below loosely. If you’re looking for something specific, take a look at as many of these businesses as you can, because most of them carry more than one type of product (ex: jewelry and wall art, apparel and home decor). I’ve tried to categorize them according to the main product type they sell, but many are quite eclectic. You might find the coffee mug you’re looking for under the “apparel” category.

🎄 Most of these businesses are carried over from last year’s article. A few of them seem as though they may have taken a hiatus (i.e. no social media posts for months). Check with the owner to make sure she’s still in business, and if you find out that she’s definitely not, please let me know so I can remove the business.

🎄 Some of these businesses are based outside the U.S. Be aware of this with regard to shipping costs, time, etc. when ordering.

🎄 Some of these businesses may be having Cyber Monday sales instead of Black Friday sales. Check with each business to get the best deals!

Apparel

Epiphany Boutique

Garlands of Grace

Kraffty Kat

Sunshine and Spoons

The Farmhouse

Babies/Kids/Maternity/Nursing Apparel and Accessories

A Great Baby

His Kids Company

Holy Pals

Shoepiddy Doos

The Glassy Quilt Shop

Threadlynn

Art/Art Items

Birds of the Air Artist

Blossom With Joy Co.

Crystal Bright and Blue

Dapper and Darling

Hope Ink

Jean Cormier

Rebecca Lynne Kinane

RefToons

Bags & Accessories

Bug and Beluga

Design the Everything

Go Forth Goods

Night Heron Leather

Books and Media

(specific authors/topics and general retailers
See also “Christian Books, Apparel, & Gifts”)

Brooke Bartz

Susan Heck

Gabriel Hughes

Allen Nelson

Nate Pickowicz

Proverbs 9:10 Ministries

Owen Strachan

The Essential Church Movie

Untold Secrets of Planet Earth

Candles

Brave and Courageous

Little Shepard Acres

Christian Books, Apparel, & Gifts

(See “Music and Audio” category for Christian music and audio.)

(Mostly) Apparel

Aloha Ke Akua Clothing Co.

Carpe Fide

Love in Faith Clothing

Missional Wear

Six Notes Clothing Co.

The Wandering Pilgrims

Wrath and Grace

(Mostly) Books

Banner of Truth

Books by Corine

Cumberland Valley Bible Book Service

Founders Ministries

G3 Ministries

Grace & Truth Books

Grace to You

Gospel Grown

Light of Faith Resources

Ligonier

Living Waters

Not Consumed

Religious Affections Ministries

Solid Ground Christian Books

Westminster Bookstore

Wretched

(Mostly) Gift Items

Christ To All

Crew + Co.

Eternal Gift Store

Holly Lane Christian Jewelry

Initially Blessed

Little Things Studio

New Heart Treasures

Painted Promises Co.

A Pilgrim’s Coffer

Raising Real Men

Scripture Type

SDG Clothing

Servants of Grace

Sola Gratia

This Is the Day, Rejoice!

West Eden

Crafts and Crafting

A Faith Creation

Eight22 Crafts

Coffee

Five Lakes Coffee

Owl Eye Coffee Roasters

Rebel Roaster Coffee

Reformed Roasters

Seven Weeks Coffee

6 Beans Roasting

Squirrelly Joe’s Coffee

Customization

Reflections by Carla Rolfe

TX Custom Creations

Edible, Cooking, and Nutrition

Bulk Herb Store

ENAK Seasonings

Ganas Pecan Company

Grandad Farms

Low Country Olive Oil

Richie’s Kitchen & Bakery

Swiss Pantry

Electronics

Just Audio

Furniture

Pure Chairs

TruMake

Gardening/Plants

Headwind Consumer Products

Housewares, Home/Holiday Decor

4Eleven Metalworks

Chapter and Verse Studios

C. Schreier Designs

Farmstead Cottage

The inSPIRITed Home

The King & I Crafts

The Lefty Letters

Redemption Threads

Stitched by Nats

Table Decor and More

Tea & Honey Designs

Woodlander Workshop

Jewelry & Jeweled Accessories

Alia Renee Designs

Blessed Hope Nepal

Bliss, Books, and Jewels

Claire’s Creative Finds

Gianna’s Jewelry Box

Girl Ran Away

Little Light Artisans

Pottery by Amos

SilverWear by Linda

Tabitha Artisans

The Dream Corner Shop

The Silver Beatle

Wasson Watch Co.

Kitchen

Domestic Dominion

Gum Creek Boards

Schrader Woodcraft

South Blossom Designs

TimmyTurned

Music & Audio

2GBG Music

Brian Sauvé

Jonathan Park Audio Adventures

Laura Saeler

Majesty Music

Seeds Kids Worship

The Corner Room

Wrath and Grace

Paper, Cards, & Stationery

Butterflyers

ROC Paper Scissors

Soap, Bath, Cosmetics, Personal Care, Skin Care

A’del Natural Cosmetics

Beehive Naturals

Calico & Twine

Daddy and Me Farms

Drenched

Green Mountain Farms

KatieLane Designs

Miller’s Grove

Reformed Skin Care

Rosy Hill Organics

Stonehaven Homestead

Zambeezi

Toys, Kids/Baby Items, Educational

According to Gretchen

This Reading Mama

🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄

Miscellaneous Christian
Christmas Shopping Resources

🎄 Check the comments section of this article to see if my readers have posted any new suggestions.

🎄 Want to explore more Christian businesses? Try the Christian Business Referral Network for a wide variety of products and services.

What’s your favorite Christian-owned
online business for Christmas gifts?

Comment below (please include the business’ website)
and maybe it will be included on next year’s list.

(No multi-level marketing or personal sales businesses
– ex: Pampered Chef, essential oils, Tupperware – please.)

Thanks/Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving!

Michelle Lesley

For those of us in the United States, today is Thanksgiving Day. I hope you all have a lovely day with family and friends giving thanks to God for all of the ways He has blessed you.

I’ve got a great list of Christian-owned online businesses coming your way this afternoon (3 p.m. Central) as we begin Christmas shopping in earnest, so be sure to check in here at the blog before you start making your Black Friday purchases.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanks/Thanksgiving

Give Thanks with a Grateful Heart

Michelle Lesley

 Originally published November 26, 2008

O give thanks to the LORD,
for He is good;
For His lovingkindness is everlasting.
1 Chronicles 16:34

Thanksgiving is upon us. It’s my favorite holiday. I get “time off” from my job (although as a stay at home mom, my “time off” looks a lot like my “time on”!); I get to visit with family; there’s no mad rush of gift shopping; and, the whole holiday is centered around eating. What could be better?

There’s only one thing I don’t look forward to about the holiday I love best. I’m not happy with the way Christmas has begun to overshadow Thanksgiving. The radio stations started playing Christmas carols before Halloween. The stores put out Christmas decorations earlier and earlier every year. The commercials for Christmas gifts and sales have been prolific since October. You almost get a sense that, aside from the good people at Butterball, retailers consider Thanksgiving to be in the way. They know that Thanksgiving is the “Gentlemen, start your engines!” rallying point for most shoppers, and without it, they could probably push Black Friday back to September and combine it with their Labor Day sales.

But more than my own personal annoyance and my desire to gather up all the retail CEOs and the media in one place and shout at them, “Nobody puts Thanksgiving in a corner!” I’m concerned for all of us as a national community. With everything that’s going on in our country and the world right now, do we really need to skip over being thankful?

With everything that’s going on in our country and the world right now, do we really need to skip over being thankful?

We Americans are so blessed we’ve become numb and ungrateful. What a slap in the face to people all over the world for whom simply surviving another day is an almost insurmountable task. How often do we have to worry about having water to drink that’s clean enough not to make us sick? How many of us are starving to death because we have no access to food? How often do we have warring factions marching through our front yards? When was the last time we secretly huddled together to worship, afraid that at any moment we could be arrested, tortured, killed?

In the mad rush of all that is going on in our day to day lives, maybe it’s not such a bad idea to slow down and give Thanksgiving its due.

In the mad rush of all that is going on in our day to day lives, maybe it’s not such a bad idea to slow down and give Thanksgiving its due.

Thank you, Lord…
…that I can see, hear, move, think clearly, and attend to my own needs.
…that I live in a country that protects my freedoms.
…for the family with which You’ve blessed me.
…for the roof over my head.
…for enough to eat.
…for saving me.

Don’t skip Thanksgiving this year. Don’t push it over in a corner and treat it as though it’s an interruption of your Christmas plans. Relish it. Wallow in it. Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good!

Thanks/Thanksgiving

25 Things I Forgot to Thank God For

Michelle Lesley

Originally published March 13, 2015

I’ve just been in a funk, lately. Nothing out of the ordinary is wrong, but it’s been raining for eleventy two days in a row, and the constant darkness and dreariness seems to have wormed its way into my psyche and, I noticed recently, even into my prayer life.

A couple of days ago, I started out my prayer time with a huge sigh followed by a bunch of wimpering and whining about nothing of consequence. I was just moody. And I didn’t feel like praying.

And then God graciously brought a lovely little snippet of Scripture to my mind:

give thanks in all circumstances;
for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.
1 Thessalonians 5:18

Want to know God’s will for your life? There it is: give thanks in all circumstances. When you get a new car. When you catch your spouse cheating on you. When you’re on a glorious vacation. When you get laid off from work. When you’re happy. When you’re sad. When you’re in the mood, and when you’re not in the mood.

Give thanks in – not necessarily for, but in – all circumstances.

Well, this was certainly a circumstance. Why not give gratitude a try? I was in the car headed to pick up my boys from school, and I decided to spend the entire twenty minute drive just thanking God for things.

I started with the big stuff: salvation, forgiveness for my sin, times when God has miraculously provided, specific answers to prayer…

How often do we forget to thank God for all the (in our eyes) tiny little unnoticed things He does for us every day?

I was starting to slow down and I still had about half the drive left. Surely there was more to be thankful for! And that’s when it struck me. How often do we forget to thank God for all the (in our eyes) tiny little unnoticed things He does for us every day? We thank Him for the miracles, but what about the mundane? What “little things” had I forgotten to thank God for?

1. Air conditioning. I live in the South. Enough said.

2. I know where my next meal is coming from.

3. Social media and e-mail. I can keep up with far off loved ones, and I’ve “met” some awfully nice people.

4. I can see. I can hear. I can think clearly. I can walk.

5. I live in a country where Christianity is not yet against the law.

6. Sunsets.

7. Cute baby animals.

8. I can read and write. That’s not the case for women, globally.

9. I was able to conceive and carry my children to term.

10. Warm quilts on cold nights.

11. The Bible is available in my native language, and I have several copies of it.

12. I have no fear of suicide bombers in my community.

13. The beach.

14. A crawfish boil with friends.

15. Reliable electricity.

16. Hearing my children sing when they think no one is listening.

17. My husband is a Believer and is good to me.

18. Mountains. I miss mountains.

19. Indoor plumbing and clean drinking water.

20. Laughing hysterically with my family.

21. Level-headed discernment ministries.

22. Peanut butter and chocolate ice cream.

23. A roof over my head.

24. Home schooling.

25. People who are kind (or crazy) enough to read my blog articles all the way to the end.

Well, that was my list, and I think I’ll keep looking for things to add to it. Thanking God for the “little things,” realizing they might be big things to others, and recognizing the pervasiveness of God’s blessings and provision cheered me up and was truly a worship experience.

We thank Him for the miracles, but what about the mundane?

What kinds of things would you put on your list?

Thanks/Thanksgiving, Top 10

Top Ten Songs for Thanksgiving

Michelle Lesley

Originally published November 18, 2016

Isn’t Thanksgiving a wonderful holiday? It’s a whole day set aside for feasting and thanking God for all of the glorious things He has done for us. And what’s a celebration without great music? Here, in no particular order, are my top 10 picks for beautiful and joyful songs of Thanksgiving. (Click on the titles of the videos without screen lyrics for a lyric sheet in case you’d like to sing along!)

And if you prefer a playlist format, I’ve compiled all of the songs below into my YouTube Thanksgiving playlist.

Thanksgiving is a whole day set aside for feasting and thanking God for all of the glorious things He has done for us. And what’s a celebration without great music?

1. We Gather Together

It’s the iconic song of Thanksgiving, and for good reason. Won’t it be amazing to one day “gather together” with our brothers and sisters from all over the world to offer thanks and praise to our great and glorious God?

2. O Give Thanks

This was a new one for me this year, but it’s already a favorite. With its phenomenal theology and singability, this one is probably already a Thanksgiving staple in many churches.

3. Now Thank We All Our God

“With hearts and hands and voices.” We thank God in our hearts and by singing and praying to Him, but let’s not forget to serve Him, and others, as an act of thanks as well.

4. Give Thanks

This song quickly became a Thanksgiving standard in the 90’s. I love the way it points us to the simple truth of being thankful for Christ.

5. Come, Ye Thankful People, Come

Sit down and read over the lyrics of this one if you have a moment. The hymnist beautifully weaves together the idea of harvest time and God’s provision for us with the idea that we are God’s “crop,” wheat and tares sown together. And one day “the Lord our God shall come, and shall take the harvest home.”

6. Thank You, Lord, for Saving my Soul1

Did you know this song had verses? I have to say I feel a little cheated. I’ve been singing this song all my life and never knew of the three precious verses about thankfulness in this song. We need to bring them back!1

7. For the Beauty of the Earth

How often do we forget to thank God for the simple things? The beauty of the earth, the love of family and friends, the church, and Christ, God’s best gift of all.

8. I Thank You, Lord

I’m sorry, but if this song doesn’t have you dancing across the kitchen with the turkey, you’d better check your praise thang to make sure it ain’t broke. “I thank you Lord. You’ve been so good to me.” Not a thing wrong with that! (Sorry, I couldn’t find a lyrics sheet.)

9. Count Your Blessings

What a lovely treat from the chorale of The Master’s University. When’s the last time you counted your blessings? Thanksgiving is a great day to start, but don’t forget to keep counting (and thanking God) all year through!

10. He Has Made Me Glad

Drawn from Psalm 100 and 118, this sweet little song reminds us of the joy of simply being in God’s presence and thanking Him for who He is.

What’s your favorite Thanksgiving song, or song of thanks and praise to God?

What’s your favorite Thanksgiving song,
or song of thanks and praise to God?

1I appreciate this sweet sister sharing her rendition of Thank You, Lord, for Saving My Soul, but I’d like to get a higher quality video of this song (I scoured YouTube and Vimeo, and this was the absolute best I could find that included the verses). I’m looking for, at minimum, a duet, but preferably a quartet, ensemble, or choir (from a reasonably doctrinally sound church) version, a capella or accompanied, original, not modernized. It should include all of the verses, high quality audio, and high quality vocal talent. I can’t offer to pay you, all I can offer you is some exposure every year at Thanksgiving when I re-run this article. Interested? Put it on YouTube and send me the link.

I have not exhaustively vetted these musicians and songwriters, and I do not endorse any of them whose lives or beliefs conflict with Scripture or my beliefs as outlined in the Statement of Faith or Welcome tabs at the top of this page.