Happy Thanksgiving!

I want to take the time to wish all Americans a very Happy Thanksgiving today.  The Lord is very good.  Many Americans will be traveling to visit with their families and stuff themselves with turkey, dressing, ham, mashed potatoes and gravy, dinner rolls, and pumpkin pie, etc.  Thanksgiving is known for Thanksgiving parades such as the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, which first began around 1924.  It ties America's Thanksgiving Parde in Detroit for the second oldest Thanksgiving Day Parade in America.  The oldest Thanksgiving Day parade in America is in Philadelphia.  Also, the NFL's Thanksgiving Classic, which predates the formation of the league itself, hosts three football games every Thanksgiving Day.  Both the Dallas Cowboys and the Detroit Lions host football games on Thanksgiving Day.

The event in which Americans commonly refer to as the first Thanksgiving was celebrated in 1621 in Plymouth, Massachusetts by the Pilgrims and the Native Americans.  The Pilgrims celebrated that day to commemorate surviving the first harsh winter in New England.  They set aside that day to thank God for his goodness upon them.  The first Thanksgiving feast lasted three days consisting of fish, shellfish, wild fowl, dried Indian maize, corn, squash, venison, berries, peas, and pumpkins, to name a few.  They didn't have turkey for their first Thanksgiving, but they did have a feast.  And they displayed their thanks to the Lord.  There have also been days set aside to celebrate Thanksgiving since that time.  It wasn't until 1863 that President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed the fourth Thursday as the time set aside to celebrate Thanksgiving annually.  It wasn't until December 26, 1941 that Thanksgiving was made a federal holiday when president Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed the law mandating the fourth Thursday of every November as the day to celebrate Thanksgiving.  Americans have been celebrating Thanksgiving on the fourth Thursday ever since that time.  Consequently, Americans have forgotten the historical significance behind the celebration of Thanksgiving.  With our nation becoming rapidly secularized since 1962, Thanksgiving today is known as simply a day of feasting with family and friends.  Many public schools today don't even celebrate Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving has become a marginalized holiday in our schools and our society.  We forget about the Pilgrims that gave thanks to God for His goodness and for protecting them from a harsh winter.  Some refer to Thanksgiving as "Turkey Day", which is tragic.

I want to encourage Americans to set aside some time to thank the Lord for his bountiful blessings tomorrow.  As I've said in recent posts, America has enjoyed unprecedented prosperity since the end of World War II.  America has manufactured all kinds of goods and gadgets like never before in our nation's history.  We've also become a very spoiled nation with the generations ranging from the Baby Boom generation down to the youngest generation today.  We possess so many modern conveniences today, which were unheard of many years ago.  I'm very thankful for all the conveniences of life.  I'm thankful for the technological innovations that have been made in the last 50 years.  Sadly, we've become a very ungrateful generation.  We've taken much for granted.  We're a generation that whines and complains about anything and everything.  We probably complain more today than generations past, and we possess more material goods than generations past.  We've forgotten the Creator.  We've forgotten the God of Heaven who created us and loves us.  We've forgotten what the meaning and purpose of life is.  Ecclesiastes 12:3 says that we are to fear God and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man.  Life is about serving the Lord.  We're so wrapped up in all the materialism and commercialism that takes places in our society.  We've forgotten what the meaning and purpose of life is.  The purpose of life is to serve the Lord and follow Him. 

For the last few years, I've been seeing the signs that America is headed for some dangerous times.  There are many Americans struggling economically as I speak.  I'm afraid it's going to get worse.  One of these days the dollar will take a tumble as a currency and become worthless.  I'm afraid there are many people that are going to regret taking life for granted.  I know I've taken life for granted many times.  I want to encourage all Americans to give thanks to God tomorrow for his goodness in our life.  He's blessed this country abundantly.  We need to learn how to be thankful while we have it good.  I want to learn to appreciate life while I have it good.  I don't want to wait until the bottom collapses to realize that I should've been more thankful.  The Lord is Good.  Happy Thanksgiving!