What is Thanksgiving?
According to Wikipedia, it is a national holiday celebrated primarily in the United States of America and in Canada as a day of giving thanks for the blessing of the harvest and of the proceeding year. Several other places in the world observe similar celebrations. It is celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November in the United States and of the second Monday of October in Canada. Thanksgiving has a historic roots in religious and cultural tradition, and has long been celebrated in secular manner as well. There are also countries who don't celebrate Thanksgiving like Philippines and all muslim countries like the UAE. Though we don't have a specific dates to celebrate Thanksgiving here in this side of the world,everyday should be Thanksgiving day. We should be thankful not just for the things that we asked and given to us but most especially for the little things that somethimes we all have taken for granted. Little things that without it life would be nothing, like just waking up each morning, we forget that is the most basic thing that we should be thankful for, for there are people who doesn't even wake up after they sleep. The air we breathe, the water that comes to us abundantly and many more.
Do you know how the official national Thanksgiving Day come about?
It's Sara J. Hale, the editior of the poplular women's magazine Godey's Lady's Book. She wrote a Thanksgiving Day editorial in the September 1863 issue of her magazine. Up until that time, there had been no official National Thanksgiving Day. Her thought on being thankful revolved around Nehemial 8:10 that says "Go and enjoy choice food and sweet drinks, and send some to those who have nothing prepared. This day is sacred to our Lord. Do not grieve, for the joy of the LOrd is your strength". When the issue came off the press, she sent a copy to President Lincoln. At that time President Lincoln had bigger worries than establishing a day on which to be thankful. The country was in the middle of a Civil War. The union armies had lose battles to the confederates on many fronts. Many of his generals were worried more about the cut of their uniforms than about the young men dying under their commands. Newspaper blasted the president, no matter what he did or didn't do. Some members of the cabinet made fun of him, called him names behind his back. The presidency of the United States of America seemed to be on the verge of crumbling. Along with the country itself-not exactly the time to give thanks! President Lincoln reads Mrs. Hale's editorial. And despite his political and personal troubles, on October 3, 1863, he declared the last Thursday of November to be a National Thanksgiving Day.
Saying Thank You is so easy. Those two words can make all the difference in another person's entire day. Maybe you remember saying thank you to your mom and dad for clean clothes, good food and just for being there when you needed them. Maybe you tell the pastor thank you for a sermon well done or to a total stranger whom have shown you a simple act of kindness, maybe to a man who have opened a door for you, to the guy who gave up his seat for you in the metro or to that lady who gave you direction when you didn't know where to go and the list could go on and on.. But there are people to whom you may not said thank you but whom you really appreciate for their good example, for their faithfullness, for the time and effort they give to make your life a little more comfortable-such as the bus drivers that take you to work everyday, to the girl who give you your coffee everyday, to the lady in the reception area that greats you every morning upon entering the building, to the delivery guy who delivers your food, to the security guard in your building, to the cashier, to the janitor who throws your thrash,to that person that always asked how are you and so on.., these are the people that make our life comfortable yet we always forget to appreciate, people who we feel can do nothing for us yet they are the people that is the most deserving to be appreciated and saying thank you to.
Saying thank you is important. Being thankful is a choice, not a chance. That means, no matter what else is happening in our lives, we can chose to be thankful and discover that we are THANKFUL, we are HAPPY.
Therefore, we can choose to be HAPPY just by being THANKFUL.
Make sense right..?
Just like what President Lincoln did,he didn't wait until the end of the war to be thankful. He declared his gratitute and praise at a time when it seemed he had the least for which to be thankful. The message in Nehemial 8:10 is just that-the joy of giving thanks to the Lord is your strenght.
It's easy to say thank you when everything is terrific, but when things go bad, the true joy of thankfulness gives strength.- "the joy of the Lord is our strength".
Being thankful is a good habit to develop. So, let us all be thankful to the Lord not only for the blessings but also for the trials and tribulations that come our way.
Let us say thank you to the people around us whom we know deserved our sinceremost THANK YOU.
Have a blessed THANKSGIVING people!!
According to Wikipedia, it is a national holiday celebrated primarily in the United States of America and in Canada as a day of giving thanks for the blessing of the harvest and of the proceeding year. Several other places in the world observe similar celebrations. It is celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November in the United States and of the second Monday of October in Canada. Thanksgiving has a historic roots in religious and cultural tradition, and has long been celebrated in secular manner as well. There are also countries who don't celebrate Thanksgiving like Philippines and all muslim countries like the UAE. Though we don't have a specific dates to celebrate Thanksgiving here in this side of the world,everyday should be Thanksgiving day. We should be thankful not just for the things that we asked and given to us but most especially for the little things that somethimes we all have taken for granted. Little things that without it life would be nothing, like just waking up each morning, we forget that is the most basic thing that we should be thankful for, for there are people who doesn't even wake up after they sleep. The air we breathe, the water that comes to us abundantly and many more.
Do you know how the official national Thanksgiving Day come about?
It's Sara J. Hale, the editior of the poplular women's magazine Godey's Lady's Book. She wrote a Thanksgiving Day editorial in the September 1863 issue of her magazine. Up until that time, there had been no official National Thanksgiving Day. Her thought on being thankful revolved around Nehemial 8:10 that says "Go and enjoy choice food and sweet drinks, and send some to those who have nothing prepared. This day is sacred to our Lord. Do not grieve, for the joy of the LOrd is your strength". When the issue came off the press, she sent a copy to President Lincoln. At that time President Lincoln had bigger worries than establishing a day on which to be thankful. The country was in the middle of a Civil War. The union armies had lose battles to the confederates on many fronts. Many of his generals were worried more about the cut of their uniforms than about the young men dying under their commands. Newspaper blasted the president, no matter what he did or didn't do. Some members of the cabinet made fun of him, called him names behind his back. The presidency of the United States of America seemed to be on the verge of crumbling. Along with the country itself-not exactly the time to give thanks! President Lincoln reads Mrs. Hale's editorial. And despite his political and personal troubles, on October 3, 1863, he declared the last Thursday of November to be a National Thanksgiving Day.
Saying Thank You is so easy. Those two words can make all the difference in another person's entire day. Maybe you remember saying thank you to your mom and dad for clean clothes, good food and just for being there when you needed them. Maybe you tell the pastor thank you for a sermon well done or to a total stranger whom have shown you a simple act of kindness, maybe to a man who have opened a door for you, to the guy who gave up his seat for you in the metro or to that lady who gave you direction when you didn't know where to go and the list could go on and on.. But there are people to whom you may not said thank you but whom you really appreciate for their good example, for their faithfullness, for the time and effort they give to make your life a little more comfortable-such as the bus drivers that take you to work everyday, to the girl who give you your coffee everyday, to the lady in the reception area that greats you every morning upon entering the building, to the delivery guy who delivers your food, to the security guard in your building, to the cashier, to the janitor who throws your thrash,to that person that always asked how are you and so on.., these are the people that make our life comfortable yet we always forget to appreciate, people who we feel can do nothing for us yet they are the people that is the most deserving to be appreciated and saying thank you to.
Saying thank you is important. Being thankful is a choice, not a chance. That means, no matter what else is happening in our lives, we can chose to be thankful and discover that we are THANKFUL, we are HAPPY.
Therefore, we can choose to be HAPPY just by being THANKFUL.
Make sense right..?
Just like what President Lincoln did,he didn't wait until the end of the war to be thankful. He declared his gratitute and praise at a time when it seemed he had the least for which to be thankful. The message in Nehemial 8:10 is just that-the joy of giving thanks to the Lord is your strenght.
It's easy to say thank you when everything is terrific, but when things go bad, the true joy of thankfulness gives strength.- "the joy of the Lord is our strength".
Being thankful is a good habit to develop. So, let us all be thankful to the Lord not only for the blessings but also for the trials and tribulations that come our way.
Let us say thank you to the people around us whom we know deserved our sinceremost THANK YOU.
Have a blessed THANKSGIVING people!!
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