{"id":134,"date":"2007-11-22T01:01:01","date_gmt":"2007-11-22T01:01:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/conversationswithgod\/2007\/11\/happy-thanksgiving.html"},"modified":"2007-11-22T01:01:01","modified_gmt":"2007-11-22T01:01:01","slug":"happy-thanksgiving","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/conversationswithgod\/2007\/11\/happy-thanksgiving.html","title":{"rendered":"Happy Thanksgiving!"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is Thanksgiving Day in the United States, where I am writing this, and where Thanksgiving Day is one of the biggest family holidays of the year. But I have an idea about this holiday that is different from most Americans. I think that the holiday should be abolished.
\nI don’t think that Thanksgiving should be a holiday at all. I think it should be a HOLY day, and placed on the calendar of all sacred days and events.
\nI also think we should change the way that Thanksgiving is celebrated. Forget about sitting down to a big meal and offering thanks to God for all the bounty that has been received during the past year. Instead, create a new ritual. Sit down together and thank God for all the goodness that is to come.
\nDo not go around the table and have each guest tell what he or she has to be thankful for. Rather, go around the table and have each guest say what they are going to be thankful for in the coming year — and then have everyone give thanks right then and there, ahead of time. It’s not too late to plan that for this year. Make your Manifestation List for the coming 12 months, then hold a little informal Thanksgiving-in-Advance ritual at dinner. For that matter, repeat the ritual every day for the next year. Sincerely believe and be grateful for receiving the gifts that you just know will shower down upon you from God’s limitless bounty.
\nIn Conversations with God <\/em>the message about gratitude is clear. It is the most powerful form of prayer. Gratitude in advance, not gratitude after the fact.
\nThis is because to thank God in advance for something is the highest form of faith. It is a statement of supreme confidence. It is the Ultimate Knowing.
\nWhen we come from this Place of Knowing, we move into an energy that creates miracles.
\nThe most powerful prayer that I ever heard is only 17 words long:
\nThank you, God,
\nfor helping me
\nto understand
\nthat this problem
\nhas already been
\nsolved for me.
\nSo, while it is well and good to say “thanks” for things past, especially with other human beings to whom we owe a word of gratitude, it is extremely empowering to thank God ahead of time for all the goodness that will flow to you in the coming year. It is even more powerful to decide ahead of time what that goodness will be.
\nMake a list. Check it twice. Write down all that you choose to have happen between Thanksgiving 2007 and Thanksgiving 2008. Read your list out loud dinner. Encourage others to do the same. Share and Declare. There are few things more inspiring and powerful than public declaration.
\nSuddenly, Thanksgiving 2007 will have a new meaning. It will now be about Sharing and Declaring. It will be about Knowing and Growing. We grow into what we know.
\nSo I think that Thanksgiving should not be a mere holiday. It should be elevated to a Holy Day. It should be the holiest day of the year. The day on which we say “thanks be to God” for all the wonder, all the abundance, and all the joys of life we anticipate and that we know in our hearts God is sending us in the coming year.
\nIt should be the holiest day of the year because gratitude is the most sacred tool in the Creator’s Toolbox. With it anything can be produced, anything can be created, anything can be experienced! Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is Thanksgiving Day in the United States, where I am writing this, and where Thanksgiving Day is one of the biggest family holidays of the year. But I have an idea about this holiday that is different from most Americans. I think that the holiday should be abolished. 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