Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Giving Thanks

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving Day. 


 In the "holiday rush", I feel this beautiful day gets so very overlooked!  Even the Thanksgiving Blend coffee from Starbucks is off the shelves already making room for Christmas Blend.  I have nothing against Christmas, but the Thanksgiving holiday often seems to me like a neglected middle child sandwiched between two candy hoarding money making holidays.  It's not given full recognition or remembrance like it ought.  We, as Americans, eat to the point of gluttony, and at times pause to say grace, but how often do we remember?  Do we as believers realize the sacrifice that came early on when worshipping God was of first importance? 

The Pilgrims who sailed to America on the Mayflower came to be free of the religious tyranny of England.  They shed all comfort, left friends and family behind and boarded a ship to pursue freedom.  I can't imagine the fear of the unknown as well as the harshness of the wilderness, and the illnesses that greeted those first wandering freedom-seekers.  They left England with 102, and a short seven months later had a mere 51 among them; almost half of those were children.  After a plentiful summer and friendly relations with the Indian's it's no wonder to me they felt the need to celebrate and give thanks to God!  Imagine the joy of having full pantries, plenty of wood and furs ready to be shipped to England!  I can almost smell the lobster pies, ducks, turkeys, nuts and berries and the five large deer the Indians brought to contribute to the feast!  It was truly a time of  Thanks Giving.  

In reading the book, Meet the Pilgrim Fathers to my children, I'm left with this question:
  How do we instill gratitude?  How do we teach thankfulness? 

We speak it,
                    live it,
                              pray it... 



                 Happy Thanksgiving!




linked to Ann at A Holy Experience

4 comments:

Ginger said...

You took the words right out of my mouth. I whole heartedly agree with you! It seems we're so quick to skip over counting our blessings and being thankful and we move on to thinking about what we want, can't live without (or so the media tells us). How sad. And these days people say they're thankful, but thankful to Whom? I'm grateful for our Lord who provides and takes care of us. Thanks for sharing!!!

aspiritofsimplicity said...

When we are thankful our children will be thankful as well.

Heather said...

Love your writing style :)
This is a great post.
Have a Happy Thanksgiving!

Heather said...

By the way, you should move to Canada where we celebrate Thanksgiving BEFORE Halloween :)