Thanksgiving on the Blogroll (Updated ~7 pm)

So far (6:41 am), these are the great Thanksgiving-related posts I’ve found on the blogroll.

Please, forgive me if I’ve left you out … I’ll update as I get the opportunity.

I just wanted to share some of what I see out in my little circle:

Brian McCrorie on Bowing Down has a wonderful piece called “A Heart of Thanksgiving; A Heart of Worship” running through those things for which he is thankful.

Over at My Take, Larry heard something worth repeating on Rush Limbaugh’s show (which is itself almost miraculous … ;-) ) and does so in “Above all, be thankful.”

Noah at Everyday Liturgy notes the same kind of need for thanksgiving and repentance in “A Pause to Give Thanks.”

He writes:

The arrival of Thanksgiving this week has convicted me about how ungrateful I am for the blessings I have received. As I reflect on recent days, weeks, and months, I am ashamed to admit that I have spent more time complaining than giving thanks.

Which of us hasn’t been there?

At Got Bible? we see a traditional Norman Rockwell painting often seen around this time. You might check out the links in the article, as well.

Oh, my … Hopeful Spirit of On the Horizon is apparently part of a Group Writing Project on thankfulness. This looks like the mother lode of thankfulness posts … I’ll be spending much time there this evening!

And one last check of the Blog Surfer before I post …

Fundyreformed of Fundamentally Reformed reveals that he is, and can prove that he is, a direct male-line descendant of John Alden, from the Mayflower in “The Mayflower and Me.”

Updated to add:

SelahV at SBC Impact! has posted about the importance of thankfulness at all times in “Fattening for the Kill - So Be Thankful!”

Tony W. Cartledge at Baptists Today On the Web has an intriguing post about trying to list everything for which you’re thankful in “Yellow pencils and matching socks.”

The great SJ Camp of CampOnThis has reminders for us all Thanks Be To God for His “Unspeakable Gift”

Washedandforgiven of Wit or Wisdom wishes all a “Happy Thanksgiving!”

OneMom has put up a review of Thanksgiving’s history in “Why Thanksgiving?”

… I must go! Again, blessings!

Updated again to add:

Riddleburger at … well, … Riddleburger encourages us all to remember those in need, and endorses a wonderful charity, and after his encouragement, I’m going to add a link to Second Harvest onto my own links as soon as I’m done with this update. His post is called Thanksgiving, and talks about the wonderful work done by this group.

The Mike Huckabee campaign is asking for what people are thankful. Feel free to check it out and add your comments. I’m not politicking today, though … just inviting you to check out “Tell Us What You Are Thankful For.”

So, if you’re sitting around reading blogs today, I hope that you’re blessed by some of these! Enjoy!

And may you have a happy and blessed Thanksgiving.

Lincoln on A Nation’s Need to Give Thanks

We know that President George Washington first proclaimed Thanksgiving as a national observance, but President Thomas Jefferson discontinued it, saying that it was a kingly practice.

In 1863, though, President Abraham Lincoln was persuaded by Sarah Josepha Hale (perhaps you know her poem, “Mary Had A Little Lamb”) to proclaim Thanksgiving as a national holiday on the last Thursday of November, as Washington had originally proclaimed.

So persuaded, he signed this proclamation on October 3, 1863:

The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God. In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theater of military conflict; while that theater has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union. Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defense, have not arrested the plough, the shuttle or the ship; the axe has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege and the battlefield; and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom. 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 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 next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity and Union.

In truth, today is not about thanking your nation, family, friends, or even veterans … today is about thanking the One who brought each of them into the world and  into your life.

Enjoy the day, certainly. But, please, remember Who has given you this day and Who has provided everything that we enjoy today. And in that thankfulness, be humbled.

As Casting Crowns sang in “Who Am I”:

“Not because of who I am, but because of what You’ve done/Not because of what I’ve done, but because of Who You are”

Thank You, God.

Thanksgiving Has Begun

In my time, it’s 9:50 Wednesday evening as I begin writing this. That is important to know, since the date stamp on here will probably read tomorrow.

I am very pleased that Thanksgiving is a Thursday holiday, because that puts it very conveniently after Wednesday … and thus my church’s Communion service. It works so well to have a worship service to begin Thanksgiving, and it helps to keep my head and heart where they belong. I spent today cleaning the refrigerator and kitchen, and did some baking. While some of it is preparatory for tomorrow (and some was that we had lasagna for dinner), it really wasn’t the kind of worship experience that I would like leading into Thanksgiving.

The fact that I live a life in which we can forget about food in the fridge should be a cause for thanks, and repentance that we take it for granted (and waste part of God’s provision). I have to admit, I wasn’t really there when I found the half of an onion that I’d left in a Tupperware container so long ago that it had turned into a semi-liquefied pink-brown bit of nastiness.

There are parts of the world in which people don’t forget about food that they have … And it’s wrong of me to take God’s provision so much for granted that I let food go to waste. But this is certainly not the point of this post.