Favorite Things- Activity Idea

A few months ago I was in charge of an activity for the ladies in my church (we typically have an activity once a month for all the women to get together) and it was such a fun night that I thought I'd share the idea.

We had a night full of our favorite things.  Each woman was told to bring 3 favorite things and they could be absolutely anything.   We then took turns sharing our items and talking about why we loved them.  We had everything from favorite foods, to running shoes, to cooking gadgets, movies, souvenirs, scriptures, the list just goes on!  It was really fun to hear why people loved certain things and a lot of us came away with a list of new books we wanted to read, or products we wanted to try.  As the women were talking several of them mentioned how hard it was to choose just three things to bring.  At the end I pointed that out and then spoke for a few minutes about the numerous and countless blessings we have been given.  Sometimes a comfortable pillow, or a appliance that can make our life easier may not come to mind when we are counting our blessings.  But we need to take time to be grateful for the little things as well.  I shared a story I had found online where a woman said that anytime her mother was feeling sad she would find one pretty thing and put it where she would see it all day long.  Sometimes it was a pretty dish rag, a flower, a picture of her family.  And she would see it, and smile, and remember how blessed she was and how much the Lord loved her through the little tender mercies He provided.  It was a great night and a good time to reflect on how grateful we are for our favorite things.

I made the handouts announcing the activity and I am sharing the file if you'd like to make your own.  The first PDF download has the sentence "brown paper packages tied up with string, these are a few of my favorite things" on it and the second PDF download is completely blank with no writing on it at all.  If you're familiar with any editing program you can add in your own text, or you can also just hand write it on.

*One thing I would suggest is to put a ban on a picture of your family or move the limit up to 4 items if a person wants to bring a picture of their family.  Just about every single person brought a picture of their family and that is kind of a given/easy way out and then a person only has 2 items to share.

Curious to know what my favorite things were?

Popcorn....oh I love popcorn.  Pride and Prejudice.  I kind of cheated here.  I brought the book and the movie.  But oh I love Mr. Darcy.  And then my quilt.  My mother made this quilt for me out of my baby clothes and her maternity clothes and it means so much to me.  I love it too.  And it was really hard to pick only three things!