THANKSGIVING PROCLAMATION

It is the duty of nations as well as of men to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God; to confess their sins and transgressions in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon, and to recognize the sublime truth, announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history that those nations are blessed whose God is the Lord .
We know that by his divine law, nations like individuals, are subjected to punishments and chastisements in this world. May we not justly fear that the awful calamity of civil war which now desolates the land may be a punishment inflicted upon us, for our presumptions sins, to the needful end of our national reformation as a whole people?
We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of heaven; we have been preserved these many years in peace and prosperity, we have grown in numbers, wealth and power as no other nation has ever grown.
But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us, and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us.
It has seemed to me fit and proper that God should be solemnly, reverently, and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice, by the whole American people. 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 as a day of Thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent father who dwelleth in the heavens.

Abraham Lincoln 1863

Why Do We Celebrate?
America’s first Thanksgiving, in 1621, was a three-day celebration of feasting and recreation. The prior year was the Pilgrims’ first winter at Plymouth, and it was so harsh almost half of the colonists perished.
By the second harvest, there was reason to rejoice. A peace treaty was signed with the Wampanoag, the Pilgrims’ Native American neighbors. And Massasoit, their leader, shared his agricultural expertise, which resulted in a bumper crop. As was common in England, where the Pilgrims originated, they chose to commemorate their bounty with a harvest festival.
Most accounts of the actual event mention neither turkey, nor pumpkin, our modern Thanksgiving staples. Indian corn was plentiful, however. Four valiant Pilgrim housewives supervised the feast that Massasoit and 90 of his people attended, bringing five deer as their contribution to the communal table.

I’M THANKFUL FOR (unknown author)
…..the mess to clean up after a party because if means I have been surrounded by friends
…..the taxes I pay because it means that I’m employed
…..the clothes that fit a little too snug because it means I have enough to eat
…..a lawn that needs mowing, windows that need cleaning, and gutters that need fixing because it means I have a Home
…..My shadow who watches me work because it means I am out in the sunshine
…..The spot I find at the far end of the parking lot because it means I am capable of walking
…..all the complaining I hear about the government because it means we have freedom of speech
…..weariness and aching muscles at the end of the day because it means I have been productive
…..my huge heating bill because it means I am warm
…..the lady behind me in church who sings off key because it means that I can hear
…..the alarm that goes off in the early morning hours because if means that I’m alive
…..the piles of laundry and ironing because it means my loved ones are nearby

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!