November 2011
Learning Thankfulness
By Al Riskowski/Nebraska Family Council
Thanksgiving means a long weekend and a wonderful opportunity to eat a great meal to many Americans. To some it is the start of the Christmas season. All of the above is true about Thanksgiving. However, what is the real meaning behind this holiday?
Hired by the Pilgrims, Capt. Miles Standish was an English military officer; he came on the Mayflower to America as an advisor and had a leading role in the administration and defense of Plymouth Colony.
The first winter in America, Capt. Standish spent much of his time at his wife Rose's bedside. Rose's sickness soon turned to chills and then uncontrollable shaking.
"Then the sicknes begane to fall sore amongst them, and the weather so bad .... the Gov/r and cheefe of them, seeing so many dye, and fall downe sick dayly, thought it no wisdom to send away the ship...."
The Mayflower remained at anchor in the Plymouth harbor that winter of 1620-21. The Pilgrims used the ship as their refuge from the bitter winter winds and snow. By spring only five wives remained out of the eighteen who had sailed to Plymouth, Rose was not among them.
The first thanksgiving followed that terrible winter in which 46 of the original 102 who sailed on the Mayflower perished, however the harvest of 1621 was a bountiful one. Most stories of Thanksgiving only talk about the harvest celebration of the pilgrims and the Native Americans that joined them. The Pilgrims survived a terrible ordeal that first winter perhaps that is why they were so thankful.
The proclamation establishing a national Thanksgiving came in the middle of the American Civil War by President Abraham Lincoln. A war on American soil that created numerous widows and orphans. A war between Americans over the ideals of justice and liberty for all.
Written by Abraham Lincoln, this is a portion of the Thanksgiving proclamation establishing the current holiday, “The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God.
In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict;
No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy.
It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American People. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens.”
The real meaning of Thanksgiving is understood in good times and bad, in tragedy and blessing. This is a time to give thanks to our faithful Lord that has promised to never leave us or forsake us.
Whatever traditions your family may have surrounding Thanksgiving I encourage you to take some time to give thanks to the Lord for His many and varied blessings, just as our forefathers did. †