Remember the "Thanks" in Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is another wonderful holiday and yes it is another Holiday with a very strong Christian background.

Hopefully people will remember who should be receiving the thanks!

The Pilgrims, even after losing about half of all those who braved the harsh elements to arrive on the shores of the new world by their first spring, relied heavily on their faith and Divine Providence of God to overcome the many hardships.

On December 11, just before disembarking at Plymouth Rock, they signed the "Mayflower Compact" which was America's first document of civil government and the first to introduce self-governance in the New World.

Persevering in prayer, and assisted by helpful Indians, the Pilgrims reaped a bountiful harvest the following summer and declared a three-day feast, starting on December 13, 1621, to thank God and to celebrate with their Indian friends.

Pilgrim Edward Winslow described the Pilgrims' Thanksgiving in these words:

"Our harvest being gotten in, our Governor sent four men on fowling [bird hunting] so that we might, after a special manner, rejoice together after we had gathered the fruit of our labors. They four in one day killed as much fowl as... served the company almost a week... Many of the Indians [came] amongst us and... their greatest King, Massasoit, with some ninety men, whom for three days we entertained and feasted; and they went out and killed five deer, which they brought... And although it be not always so plentiful as it was at this time with us, yet BY THE GOODNESS OF GOD WE ARE... FAR FROM WANT."

In 1789, following a proclamation issued by President George Washington, America celebrated its first Day of Thanksgiving to God under its new constitution.

It was Mrs. Sarah Joseph Hale who contacted president after president promoting the idea of a national holiday. President Abraham Lincoln responded in 1863 by setting aside the last Thursday of November as a national Day of Thanksgiving.

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 and 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 we celebrate Thanksgiving this year and every year, I hope we will retain the original gratefulness to God displayed by the Pilgrims and many other founding fathers.

I hope we remember that it is to those early and courageous Pilgrims that we 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.

Have a great Thanksgiving holiday.

As the pilgrims and Indians did before me, I’ll be out deer hunting this weekend trying to bag the big one.