So Much to be Thankful For!

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving this year. I cooked, we had my parents, Steven and Ashley and Grandma Coles over. We had a nice time, the meal turned out well and it was a very relaxing and fun day. We truly have so much to be thankful for! We took the advice of our friends the Bussells and looked up President Lincoln's Thanksgiving Day Proclamation. Tony and I read it and it will definitely be a tradition for our family from here on out on Thanksgiving. Here is a little excerpt that we thought was wonderful... after listing a great many blessings the Lord had given them, Lincoln says "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 voice by the whole American People." It saddens me that our nation no longer thanks the Lord with one heart and one voice. We have been taught that we are thanking the Indians for teaching the Pilgrims how to farm, or other such silly stories. Or just that we are just generally thankful for our families and material blessings. However, Thanksgiving was, from that very first feast until the feasts of Lincoln's day and beyond, designed to offer thanks to the Lord. Lincoln said, "set apart and observe the last Thursday of November as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens." This is what we are thankful for! As we learn more and more of our great God, we are able to be more and more thankful, and in turn, we receive more and more joy from Him. What a blessing that is! We all have a great many material things to be thankful for living in America. However, more than that, we have the ability to worship freely and to know the Living God. There is no greater blessing than that!