Last Thanksgiving I wrote about Abraham Lincoln’s powerful proclamation that established Thanksgiving as a national holiday.
It is a shame that our culture concentrates on the story of the Pilgrim’s thanksgiving, when the holiday itself is also rooted firmly in the solemnity, terror, and self-affliction of civil war.
Thanksgiving should epitomize the virtue of being grateful and recognizing the merciful hand of God in our lives, especially amid the worst turmoil and affliction.
Lincoln delcared Thanksgiving a day of “humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience” and “a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens.”
I recommend reading the full text of Lincoln’s proclamation with your family. You can find it in my Thanksgiving post from last year:
Lincoln’s Thanksgiving Proclamation
May God bless all of you this Thanksgiving!