\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Now that Halloween is over, let’s be getting ready for Christmas.\u00a0\u00a0The stores are already decked out in Christmas style.\u00a0 As the Halloween items go on the clearance racks, the Christmas goodies come out.\u00a0 Around here some stores had Christmas stuff\u00a0 out right after their ‘back to school’ sales. Don’t get me wrong, Christmas is my favorite time of the year, but happened to Thanksgiving?<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The United States is the only place in the world that celebrates the traditional Thanksgiving \u00a0in late November.\u00a0\u00a0 It’s a great family gathering with turkey and cranberry sauce.\u00a0 We eat until we nearly burst, then lay down and watch the football game.\u00a0 We all like the food, but how many remember that’ it’s a day to be thankful to God for His blessings?Most retailers fast-forward right to Christmas.\u00a0 There isn’t much money to be made on Thanksgiving, unless you are selling turkeys.<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 That first Thanksgiving was celebrated earlier in the fall.\u00a0 The men, women, and children that came over on the Mayflower the year before were very grateful to have survived the harsh winter and disease that took so many lives.\u00a0 They were thankful that they had found some friendly Indians to help them get their village started.<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 They had many of the same foods at their Thanksgiving table as we do.\u00a0 They probably also had venison, pheasant,\u00a0 and fish as their meat selections.\u00a0 Their pies were probably limited to apple, pumpkin, pecan and sweet potato; no lemon chiffon or peanut butter cream.I’m sure they had many other dishes that they shared with their Indian friends; like fried corn and horseradish roots.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The biggest difference is that they dedicated the day to \u00a0thanking God for all the blessings they had in the New World.\u00a0 They trusted God for everything.\u00a0 They had come here to be able to worship God as they wanted.\u00a0\u00a0God was their supplier, their anchor, their \u00a0protection, their healer and so much more.\u00a0 How could they not be thankful?\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0 Today in America we have much to be thankful for.\u00a0 We are a nation full of freedoms.\u00a0 We are the richest nation in the world.\u00a0 Most of us have much more than we need to live.\u00a0 Even the poorest American is better off than many people around the world.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0David tells us in Psalm 100:4 “Enter into His gates with thanksgiving and into His courts with praise.\u00a0 Be thankful unto Him and bless His Name.”<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 In\u00a0 Thessalonians 5:18 we are reminded to, “In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.”\u00a0 God wants our praise and thankfulness,\u00a0 not that He needs it; because He needs nothing.\u00a0 It brings joy to Him when His children are thankful.<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Christmas will come in good time, but let’s not forget Thanksgiving.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Now that Halloween is over, let’s be getting ready for Christmas.\u00a0\u00a0The stores are already decked out in Christmas style.\u00a0 As the Halloween items go on the clearance racks, the Christmas goodies come out.\u00a0 Around here some stores had Christmas stuff\u00a0 out right after their ‘back to school’ sales. Don’t get me wrong, Christmas is…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":420,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,27],"tags":[22,19,29,47],"class_list":["post-713","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-inspiration","category-news-or-feature","tag-back-in-time","tag-faith","tag-family","tag-im-sure-they-had-other-dishes-also"],"yoast_head":"\n