A Thanksgiving Day Prayer!

Today is Thanksgiving Day, Today is a day that we Thank the Lord for all the gifts he had given us. Gifts like life, a home, a family, food to eat, warmth, a coat, and love. These gifts are oftentimes taken for granted, so on this Thanksgiving, when you are with family and friends, remember all the gifts you have to be thankful for and let us also strive to Give Thanks to God for our gifts not only today but everyday of the year.

“Learn, too, to be grateful. May all the wealth of Christ’s inspiration have its shrine among you; now you will have instruction and advice for one another, full of wisdom, now there will be psalms, and hymns, and spiritual music, as you sing with gratitude in your hearts to God. Whatever you are about, in word and action alike, invoke always the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, offering your thanks to God the Father through him.” – Colossians 3:16-17 

May God Bless Us all with a Holy Thanksgiving! Happy Thanksgiving 

PRAYER OF THANKSGIVING

  Walter Rauschenbusch

O God, we thank you for this earth, our home;

For the wide sky and the blessed sun,

For the salt sea and the running water,

For the everlasting hills

And the never-resting winds,

For trees and the common grass underfoot.

We thank you for our senses

By which we hear the songs of birds,

And see the splendor of the summer fields,

And taste of the autumn fruits,

And rejoice in the feel of the snow,

And smell the breath of the spring.

Grant us a heart wide open to all this beauty;

And save our souls from being so blind

That we pass unseeing

When even the common thornbush

Is aflame with your glory,

O God our creator,

Who lives and reigns for ever and ever.

Amen. 

The First Thanksgiving was nearly 400 years ago. In the year 1620, a group of Puritans set sail on a ship called the Mayflower, they arrived in Plymouth after a six week journey. In Plymouth, there were many North American tribes who lived there. It was a harsh winter for the Pilgrims, many of them died, however, the Native Americans helped them. They supplied the Pilgrims with seeds and food. With the seeds, the Pilgrims planted crops and to celebrate their good fortune, they had a feast of Thanksgiving! Many foods were cooked for the feast, and the the Pilgrims invited the Native Americans to their feast. All of them Thanked God for their blessings. It was called "The First Thanksgiving." This is the meaning of Thanksgiving, it is not about the food, but rather spending time with Family and Friends, and Thanking God for all of our blessings!

“He is a wise man who does not grieve for the things which he has not, but rejoices for those which he has.” – Epictetus 

"He who thanks but with the lips Thanks but in part; The full, the true Thanksgiving comes from the heart." -J.A. Shedd

Ta, Ta for now!