Weekly Opinion Editorial
BEING TRULY
GRATEFUL!
by Steve Fair
On Thursday, most Americans will sit
down to turkey and dressing and celebrate Thanksgiving Day. Most school children study the ‘first
Thanksgiving,’ which was celebrated by the Pilgrims after landing in the New
World in 1621. According to a first-hand
account written by Edward Winslow it was attended by 90 Natives and 53 Pilgrims
after the first harvest in the new country.
In 1863, President Lincoln
proclaimed a national day of “Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father
who dwelleth in the Heavens,” to be celebrated on the last Thursday in November. Since that time it has been a federal
holiday, but President Washington also proclaimed a day of Thanksgiving in 1789. In 1939, in a very controversial move, President
Roosevelt changed it to the fourth Thursday in November.
In 1844, Lydia Maria Child wrote a twelve
stanza poem for Thanksgiving entitled, “Over the River and Through the Wood,” that
later became a 4 verse song. The original
words were; ‘to grandFATHER’S house we go, not grandmother,’ a little
Thanksgiving trivia. Many Americans will
travel to visit family and friends and have quality time fellowshipping around
the table, but what should Americans be thankful for this Thanksgiving? Here are three reasons to be grateful to live
in America:
First,
America is still a country that offers more opportunity for personal economic
advancement than any place in the world.
Even in an environment where manufacturing is fleeing the country faster
than rats off a sinking ship, it is still possible for the average American to
lift themselves up by their bootstraps and make something of themselves. No country offers the hard working entrepreneur
more opportunities than America. That is
why we have immigration and refugee problem- people are leaving their homeland
and fleeing to the land of opportunity and liberty because in spite of its
shortcomings, the USA is still the best the world has to offer.
Second,
America has the best and safest food and water in the world. It shouldn’t be taken for granted. Over half of the world’s population has bad
water and insufficient food. A majority
of the world’s population has a water supply that is either non-existent or polluted. Their food supply is unreliable and
inconsistent. America should be
thankful for those that produce process and supply their food and water
supply.
Third, Americans have more liberty than citizens in any other country. While it is true that liberty is under
constant attack, most Americans live in states where they are legally able to
arm and defend themselves. For the most
part, those citizens have the right of free speech, the freedom to worship as
they see fit, and the right to be considered innocent until proven guilty. Americans live under a self-governing system
of government unique to anyplace in the world.
Who provided all these blessings that Americans
enjoy? The obvious answer is God, but most
Americans don’t understand what true gratitude is because they don’t know God? Jonathan Edwards, a theologian and the first
President of Princeton, said, “True
gratitude or thankfulness to God for his kindness to us, arises from a
foundation laid before, of love to God for what He is in himself; whereas a
natural gratitude has no such antecedent foundation. The gracious stirrings of
grateful affection to God, for kindness received, always are from a stock of
love already in the heart, established in the first place on other grounds,
viz. God's own excellency.”
John Piper says; “Gratitude that is pleasing to God is not first a delight in the
benefits God gives (though that is part of it). True gratitude must be rooted
in something else that comes first, namely, a delight in the beauty and
excellency of God's character.” In other words, true gratitude must flow
out of knowing who provides the blessings you are thankful for. This Thanksgiving, are you really truly
grateful? Do you know God?
No comments:
Post a Comment