May Your Thanksgiving Blessings Include Gratitude & Joy
It’s difficult to count our Thanksgiving Blessings when we’re always so busy.
Everyone walks around locked into the devices that now seem to be a part of each of us.
This is one of those days when we need to step back, turn off the electronics, and remember all the things that make our lives worth living.
It isn’t about the unfinished report at the office.
It certainly isn’t about our responsibilities to our civic and community groups.
No, this one is about being grateful for all we have accomplished as Americans. Do you remember how Thanksgiving began?
Thanksgiving Blessings are about the People Who Make Life Worth Living
If your parents are gone now, I’m convinced you think of them each and every Thanksgiving.
Teachers who helped you and your children are forever a huge part of your success in life.
The religion which provided your foundation of faith and inspiration will walk with you each day of your life.
Family members who surrounded you in the tough and joyous moments in life are with you always in spirit.
Neighbors who arrived to support you in times of loss will forever hold an attitude of thankfulness in your heart.
Business associates who contributed to your success are definitely among those we honor this day.
Perhaps Maya Angelou said it best in Rituals of Peace and Prayer: “Let gratitude be the pillow upon which you kneel to say your nightly prayer. And let faith be the bridge you build to overcome evil and welcome good.”
Sure, there will be some people who gobble up the turkey and dressing and never once show gratitude for anything. I would like to hope those people are in the minority, but as of late I’m no longer so certain. E.P. Powell warns us against a feeling of entitlement:
“Thanksgiving Day is a jewel, to set in the hearts of honest men; but be careful that you do not take the day, and leave out the gratitude.”
I will leave you today, with the words of Abraham Lincoln:
“The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added… No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American People.’
The Invitation
“I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity and Union.” – President Abraham Lincoln: Proclamation of Thanksgiving
May your days be filled with Thanksgiving Blessings this year and every year for the rest of your life. Don’t ever forget the Legacy and Responsibility of this holiday.