Reconnecting with the Real Thanksgiving

Tom and I are reading the bible in a year online, chapter by chapter, verse by verse out loud, each taking turns. I can only recommend that you try reading God's word out loud with a loved one.....Today, Thanksgiving, we did not get our bible reading I guess because it is Thanksgiving. So God directed us to our reading for the day. and we would like to share it and it follows:

In 1789, following a proclamation issued by President George Washington, America celebrated its first Day of Thanksgiving to Godunder its new constitution. That same year, the Protestant Episcopal Church, of which President Washington was a member, announced that the first Thursday in November would become its regular day for giving thanks, "unless another day be appointed by the civil authorities." Yet, despite these early national proclamations, official Thanksgiving observances usually occurred only at the State level.
Much of the credit for the adoption of a later ANNUAL national Thanksgiving Day may be attributed to Mrs. Sarah Joseph Hale, the editor of Godey's Lady's Book. For thirty years, she promoted the idea of a national Thanksgiving Day, contacting President after President until President Abraham Lincoln responded in 1863 by setting aside the last Thursday of November as a national Day of Thanksgiving. Over the next seventy-five years, Presidents followed Lincoln's precedent, annually declaring a national Thanksgiving Day. Then, in 1941, Congress permanently established the fourth Thursday of each November as a national holiday.

Lincoln's original 1863 Thanksgiving Proclamation came - spiritually speaking - at a pivotal point in his life. During the first week of July of that year, the Battle of Gettysburg occurred, resulting in the loss of some 60,000 American lives. Four months later in November, Lincoln delivered his famous "Gettsysburg Address." It was while Lincoln was walking among the thousands of graves there at Gettysburg that he committed his life to Christ. As he explained to a friend:

When I left Springfield [to assume the Presidency] I asked the people to pray for me. I was not a Christian. When I buried my son, the severest trial of my life, I was not a Christian. But when I went to Gettysburg and saw the graves of thousands of our soldiers, I then and there consecrated myself to Christ.
As Americans celebrate Thanksgiving each year, we hope they will retain the original gratefulness to God displayed by the Pilgrims and many other founding fathers , and remember that it is to those early and courageous Pilgrims that they owe not only the traditional Thanksgiving holiday but also the concepts of self-government, the "hard-work" ethic, self-reliant communities, and devout religious faith.

It is our prayer that we God's people wake up, tear the veil off, see how far we have strayed from the Lord and scurry back with loads of Thanksgiving for his continual grace than to proceed in the manner we are going and not getting the chance to enjoy his grace. The only way this can happen is to get into God's word, The Bible, whether your believe or not, you might be convicted or renewed in your faith.

"A DOSE OF GOD A DAY, WILL KEEP SATAN AT BAY" an original rosiewildwoman quote.