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Weekly Newsletter Archive >
Happy Thanksgiving!
Happy Thanksgiving!
Nov 26, 2009
Did You Know? America’s first national Thanksgiving occurred in 1789. According to the Congressional Record for September 25th of that year, this was the first act of the Framers after completing the Bill of Rights:
Mr. Elias Boudinot said he could not think of letting the session pass without offering an opportunity to all the citizens of the United States of joining with one voice in returning to Almighty God their sincere thanks for the many blessings He had poured down upon them. With this view, therefore, he would move the following resolution:
Resolved, That a joint committee of both Houses be directed to wait upon the President of the United States to request that he would recommend to the people of the United States a Day of Public Thanksgiving and Prayer. . . .
It seems we’ve strayed so very far from where our country began, doesn’t it? Yes, Thanksgiving is a national holiday and we get the day off from work. We can stuff ourselves with way too much delicious food. None of that is inherently bad (ok, maybe the stuffing part isn’t good). But for the most part we neglect the original intent of the day – giving thanks to God for His unfailing generosity, mercy and kindness to us. Aside from praying over our meal, how many actually spend time that day thanking and praising God? How often do we verbally thank others for what they do for us? It may seem like a small thing, but in reality it is very powerful.
It reminds me a little of the account in Luke 17:11-17 where Jesus healed the ten lepers and only one returned to thank Him. Let’s determine to give God the thanks He truly deserves this Thanksgiving and to show gratitude and appreciation to others as well – and let’s do it every day.
Below are 31 scriptures and quotations on gratitude. Join me in spending the next month creating (or recreating) the habit of daily gratitude by meditating on one each day. It will bless the heart of God and you will find yourself being happier and healthier as well.
As I close this week, I will paraphrase the Apostle Paul’s words from Ephesians 1:16 and Philippians 1:3: I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, and I cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers always!
I wish you abundant, overflowing health, joy and peace and I call you BLESSED!
Ann
Day 1: To educate yourself for the feeling of gratitude means to take nothing for granted, but to always seek out and value the kind that will stand behind the action. Nothing that is done for you is a matter of course. Everything originates in a will for the good, which is directed at you. Train yourself never to put off the word or action for the expression of gratitude. Albert Schweitzer
Day 2: Gratefulness is the key to a happy life that we hold in our hands, because if we are not grateful, then no matter how much we have we will not be happy -- because we will always want to have something else or something more. Brother David Steindl-Rast
Day 3: You say grace before meals. All right. But I say grace before the concert and the opera, and grace before the play and pantomime, and grace before I open a book, and grace before sketching, painting, swimming, fencing, boxing, walking, playing, dancing and grace before I dip the pen in the ink. G. K. Chesterton
Day 4: The Pilgrims made seven times more graves than huts. No Americans have been more impoverished than these who, nevertheless, set aside a day of thanksgiving. H. U. Westermayer
Day 5: 1 Chronicles 16:34 (New Living Translation)
Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good! His faithful love endures forever
Day 6: When it comes to life the critical thing is whether you take things for granted or take them with gratitude. G. K. Chesterton
Day 7: There is a calmness to a life lived in gratitude, a quiet joy. Ralph H. Blum
Day 8: 1 Thessalonians 5:18 (Message)
Thank God no matter what happens. This is the way God wants you who belong to Christ Jesus to live.
Day 9: Appreciation can make a day, even change a life. Your willingness to put it into words is all that is necessary. Margaret Cousins
Day 10: The debt of gratitude we owe our mother and father goes forward, not backward. What we owe our parents is the bill presented to us by our children. Nancy Friday
Day 11: Romans 1:21 (New Living Translation)
Yes, they knew God, but they wouldn’t worship him as God or even give him thanks. And they began to think up foolish ideas of what God was like. As a result, their minds became dark and confused.
Day 12: Animals are reliable, many full of love, true in their affections, predictable in their actions, grateful and loyal. Difficult standards for people to live up to. Alfred A. Montapert
Day 13: Act with kindness, but do not expect gratitude. Confucius
Day 14: Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all others. Cicero
Day 15: At times our own light goes out and is rekindled by a spark from another person. Each of us has cause to think with deep gratitude of those who have lighted the flame within us. Albert Schweitzer
Day 16: 2 Corinthians 9:15 (New Living Translation)
Thank God for this gift[a] too wonderful for words!
Day 17: As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them. John F. Kennedy
Day 18: "God gave you a gift of 86,400 seconds today. Have you used one to say "thank you? Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it."
William A. Ward
Day 19: "Feeling grateful or appreciative of someone or something in your life actually attracts more of the things that you appreciate and value into your life."
Christiane Northrup
Day 20: Psalm 95:2 (Amplified Bible)
Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving; let us make a joyful noise to Him with songs of praise!
Day 21: "Develop an attitude of gratitude, and give thanks for everything that happens to you, knowing that every step forward is a step toward achieving something bigger and better than your current situation." Brian Tracy
Day 22: "The hardest arithmetic to master is that which enables us to count our blessings." Eric Hoffer
Day 23: Psalm 100:4 (Amplified Bible)
Enter into His gates with thanksgiving and a thank offering and into His courts with praise! Be thankful and say so to Him, bless and affectionately praise His name!
Day 24: "Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow." Melody Beattie
Day 25: "If you concentrate on finding whatever is good in every situation, you will discover that your life will suddenly be filled with gratitude, a feeling that nurtures the soul." Rabbi Harold Kushner
Day 26: Philippians 4:6 (New Living Translation)
Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done.
Day 27: "Every time we remember to say "thank you", we experience nothing less than heaven on earth."
Day 28: "To speak gratitude is courteous and pleasant, to enact gratitude is generous and noble, but to live gratitude is to touch Heaven." Johannes A. Gaertner
Day 29: "Thankfulness is the beginning of gratitude.
Gratitude is the completion of thankfulness.
Thankfulness may consist merely of words.
Gratitude is shown in acts." David Oman McKay
Day 30: "You simply will not be the same person two months from now after consciously giving thanks each day for the abundance that exists in your life. And you will have set in motion an ancient spiritual law: the more you have and are grateful for, the more will be given you." Sarah Ban Breathnach
Day 31:"If the only prayer you ever say in your entire life is thank you, it will be enough." Meister Eckhardt
If you have joined me in being mindful to be thankful – I thank you! Ann
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