Robert & Kay Camenisch encouraging and equipping relationships

Celebrating the Traditions of Thanksgiving

Image result for images of thanksgiving turkeyWhat comes to mind when you think of Thanksgiving? A table laden with turkey, dressing, and pumpkin pie? A break from work or school? Family gathered from far and near? Football? Black Friday sales?

Many traditions make Thanksgiving special and memorable. However, we might also think of our history. In 1621, Governor Bradford declared a day to offer thanks for good crops and invited an Indian tribe to join the settlers for a three-day feast and games.

The second recorded American Thanksgiving, in 1623, actually began as a time of prayer and fasting. The settlers set aside a day to pray and fast because they desperately needed rain. While they were praying, a gentle rain began to fall. Prayer time turned into an impromptu time of giving thanks.

Do you know of anyone who thinks of fasting in connection with Thanksgiving? After all, it is part of our history of the holiday.

Although various colonies celebrated harvest festivals, it was not until 1777 that all 13 colonies celebrated at the same time. In 1789, George Washington was the first president to declare a Day of Thanksgiving. However, it did not continue to be an annual celebration.

Finally, in 1863 Abraham Lincoln gave a proclamation, declaring a Day of Thanksgiving. He thought it might help to unite a divided nation. Since then, Thanksgiving has been proclaimed a holiday by every president.

(Did you think of bringing unity as a goal of celebrating Thanksgiving?)

About a month ago, I read a couple of articles that got me to thinking about this particular holiday. They were both about depression. Yes, depression—as unlikely as that seems.

One article suggested that one way to combat depression is to write in a notebook every morning, listing five things you’re grateful for—just five things, every morning. Evidently, practicing gratefulness helps change the mindset from a disheartened viewpoint to having a positive, hopeful outlook on life.

Another article suggested that throughout the day, if you feel down, to stop and think of three things that you are grateful for. It’s difficult to stay down or depressed while feeling grateful. As you focus on the positive—the things you’re thankful for—it drives out the doldrums.

I often get so busy just keeping up with life that I forget to be grateful. After reading those articles, I decided it was a good thing that we celebrate Thanksgiving so we will be reminded to be grateful.

But then I wondered if we get so busy with our traditions that we sometimes forget to give thanks on Thanksgiving. When asked what comes to mind when you think of Thanksgiving, do you think of giving thanks?

No other holiday spells out what it is all about—“Thanks-giving”—but we hear it as a noun, a name, a holiday—not an action. What would happen if we responded to the verb in the holiday? What if we celebrated by giving thanks?

Even in the worst circumstances, there are things to be grateful for. When we take our eyes off the problems and focus on the positive, it lifts our spirits and makes the trial easier to bear.

When we go a step further and voice appreciation to those around us for blessing us, it encourages them and makes their lives easier—and brighter.

Relationships are often restored when words of appreciation are spoken. I don’t know whether the holiday brought unity between the North and South in Lincoln’s day, but today, like then, our nation–and the world–is experiencing divisions and tensions on several fronts (political, ideological, racial, and cultural, for example). Wouldn’t it be a blessing if divisions were healed through expressions of gratefulness that cross the divides?

Family gatherings, turkey feasts, parades, and ballgames soon pass. However, if we celebrate Thanksgiving with an attitude of gratitude, it could make a positive difference that would have lasting effect—in lives of others as well as ourselves.

In George Washington’s words, Thanksgiving was to be “a day of public thanksgiving and prayer, to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favors of Almighty God.”

What would it take to keep that thanks-giving tradition alive? How much more impact would it  have to make it a habit that lasts throughout the year?

May you and those you love be blessed as you celebrate Thanks-giving this year!

Give Thanks for the Liver Mush!

Years ago, in a far-away land . . .. Actually, it was years ago, when we had four small children and were at our first pastorate in metropolitan Atlanta.

Finances were tight so we worked hard to stretch our pennies as well as our dollars. Occasional gifts of garden produce and such were greatly appreciated and were viewed as provision from the Lord.

Well, they were mostly greatly appreciated. I struggled with one gift. Jack, one of the men of the church, gifted us with liver mush. Liver was not our family favorite. Furthermore, it had been ground up and it was mush.

Yes, mush. And I’m a texture person.

I didn’t know how to cook it, so that liver lived in the freezer for several months, taking uImage result for image looking inside a freezerp space. Every time I saw it, I felt guilty because it was God’s provision. I ought to appreciate it and use it.

Finally, I pulled it out to cook. I couldn’t google, “How do you cook liver mush?” According to recipes I find on the internet, I didn’t do it right, but we didn’t know the difference.

It was part of God’s provision, so we ate it. Everybody ate some, because that’s what we required in our house.

I can’t say we enjoyed it, but we did give thanks before the meal. And, I was grateful for freezer space, and that it was gone.

Within a week or two, Jack gave us another package of liver mush. It too stayed frozen for several months before I got up the courage to prepare it. Jack seemed to know when our freezer lacked liver mush. Once again, within a very short time, we were given more.

It was long ago and memory is not precise. He probably only brought it three times, four at the most, but it was so consistently happened just after we’d consumed the stuff, that it seems it was many more.

Maybe we needed to learn to eat what was put before us or to be gracious and grateful in all things. But, we’ll probably never know why the Lord kept gifting us with liver mush—or how Jack always knew when to bring another package. Maybe we just needed a memory that would bring chuckles year later.

Eating liver mush did have one advantage. Several years later, when we were in a situation where we had no say over what we ate, I frequently would have chosen differently. However, thanks to liver mush, I knew that the pain of eating something unwanted passes quickly and is not so bad as the dread of anticipation.

I could usually be assured that within 30 minutes or so, the ordeal would be over. With that in mind, I could give thanks for my food. It was a choice.

Some days it was more difficult took longer to make that choice, but I was acutely aware that gratefulness for my food was my choice no matter what was set before me.

It was as if the Lord wrote on the wall, “This is a test! Will you be thankful for my provision?”

I hadn’t thought of liver mush in years, but it recently came up in conversation during the week a good friend buried her husband. Another friend was diagnosed with cancer, and another learned that his wife wanted a divorce because she loves someone else.

In comparison to such pain, liver mush is insignificant. It isn’t even so bad as a mosquito bite, that continues to itch and cause discomfort. It’s nothing.

But, I believe that liver mush helped me in ways I never dreamed of. I could have thrown it out, but I didn’t because I viewed it as part of God’s provision. Instead, I worked at being grateful for it.

It wasn’t easy, and I put it off, but eventually, I embraced the “hard” of life. I ate it and served it to the family.

Because of liver mush–and other things, I’m sure–I’ve learned that there is life, and grace for life, in seeing everything as coming through God’s hands.

He isn’t necessarily the author of those hard things, but, like Job, we can see that the Lord allowed the hard things to happen and we can choose to look to Him in the midst of them. We choose our attitude.

Because sin has entered the world, hard things happen. As we choose to thank God and lean on Him, He gives us strength and grace to endure them and even to choose our response..

Like with the liver mush, we don’t always know the purpose of the things that come our way. Indeed, we may never understand the why. We also might question the timing.

However, if we can force ourselves to cling to the one who made us, He will help us give thanks, and will carry us through the difficulty.

It doesn’t mean it will be easy, but we can find peace in the midst of the storm because we will know that He is with us.

To prepare for those big life-changing events, we need to look for God in our normal, every-day life. We need to train ourselves to be thankful for the liver mush that comes our way.

 

In Everything Thank God

 

Many families have a Thanksgiving tradition where everybody around the table shares one thing they’re thankful for. That encourages gratefulness in the midst of the rush and bustle of celebration. After all, God told us, “In everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus” (1 Th. 5:18).  It’s good to give thanks, but it’s especially appropriate to do so on the day set apart for that purpose.

On such occasions, frequent responses are  gratefulness for family, for an abundance of food–such as turkey and pie, for warm clothing and a roof over head, and such.  (Painting by Norman Rockwell)

However, if you look at giving thanks in the Bible—and it’s mentioned often—you’ll notice something. When thanks is spoken, nearly every time–if not always–it speaks of thanking God.

The Psalms are particularly full of thanksgiving. They repeatedly offer thanks because God is good and His steadfast love endures forever. They praise the Lord for a particular attribute or action”. They praise Him because He:

In the New Testament, Paul often began his letters speaking words of thanks for those he was writing to, but even then, he gave thanks to God.

For example, when writing the Thessalonians, he said, “We ought always to give thanks to God for you, brethren, as is only fitting, because your faith is greatly enlarged, and the love of each one of you toward one another grows ever greater, therefore, we ourselves speak proudly of you among the churches of God for your perseverance and faith in the midst of all your persecutions and afflictions which you endure” (2 Th. 1:3-4).

While thanking God, Paul voiced his appreciation for something particular about those he addressed. I’m sure they were encouraged by his words to continue standing strong in their faith and their love for one another.

However, it is significant that he said, “We ought always to give thanks to God,” rather than, “We ought to always thank those who helped us.” When we express gratefulness to others, it affirms and encourages them, as well as building healthy relationships. But, it ignores the true source of the thing that we appreciate.

By directing his thanks to God, Paul recognized that God is the source of their faith and love He was aware that “every good thing bestowed and ever perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights” (Jam. 1:17). Without the grace of God, they would not have faith and love.

We tend to slide into auto pilot and run our own lives, forgetting God as we focus on our world. In contrast, as we give thanks and praise to God, we acknowledge Him in all things and it helps us remain centered on and dependent on Him for everything.

He is with us always. In times of joy and plenty, sorrow and want, sunshine or trial, there is always something to be thankful for if we are looking to God.  Furthermore, it is pleasing to God and it strengthen our relationship with Him when we thank and praise Him.

No wonder God told us to give thanks in everything. As we recognize Him as our source of blessings, we glorify Him.

 

Give thanks to the LORD, for He is good; For His lovingkindness is everlasting” (Ps. 136:1).