CELEBRATING IN THE TRUE SPIRIT OF THANKSGIVING

I’ve been thinking about Thanksgiving a lot lately. Not the decorations or how to get ready for Turkey day but the way this Thanksgiving feels. To be honest, it feels a little, well less! When you really get down to it our whole world feels a little less. Let’s talk about being thankful THIS Thanksgiving.

I think hosting Thanksgiving is the most work intense, tiring, hardest meal of the year to pull off! There, I said it!

And maybe I said it for all of us who host Thanksgiving year after year!

There have been years in the past that I have worked myself into total exhaustion to put together a magical-Martha-Stewart-type-Thanksgiving. So, by the time my family and friends sat down to dinner I wanted to say, “Have a great dinner and remember to clean up after yourselves I’M GOING TO BED”!

Can anyone relate?

I long for feeling that way now! But this year, Thanksgiving will be a lot more quiet! A lot less full. Just a lot less.

Do you feel it too?

So today, I would like to gently and lovingly remind you, and especially ME,  of the purpose for Thanksgiving and the attitude that will help us celebrate in the true spirit of the holiday!

The word THANKSGIVING says it all! 

ENTER HIS GATES WITH THANKSGIVING AND HIS COURTS WITH PRAISE; GIVE THANKS TO HIM AND PRAISE HIS NAME. Psalm 100:4

To understand the true meaning of Thanksgiving let’s look at the Hebraic roots of the word.

The word Thanksgiving in Hebrew is yadah.

The root of this word is yad (yawd). Yad literally means “hand”.

And it carries the beautiful idea “to throw or to cast”.

I like to think of giving thanks this way.

It’s like throwing up our hands full of words of praise and good things and casting them up to the Lord. Out of the very ends of our uplifted fingertips comes rays of praise and thanksgiving for our great God!

What a pretty picture of thanksgiving, right?

The Pilgrims got it so right. They had suffered almost unspeakable hardship coming to and settling in America. Yet, in 1621 the rag-tag group put together a feast along with local Indians who had befriended them to give thanks to God for the first good harvest!

The harvest was the very essence of their survival! And they recognized the Source of their bounty.

I know the real meaning of Thanksgiving gets hidden in parades and big balloon characters and football games and preparations and stuffing all too well. And I’m not trying to be a fun-sucker!

But if we really want to celebrate THANKSGIVING this year, don’t you think we need to purpose beforehand?

What I mean is if we sincerely want this to be a day of giving thanks to God we should make a conscious and purposeful effort to MAKE IT A DAY OF THANKS.

We need to put God first or Thanksgiving Day. If not we might feel just a little cheated! A little less! And honestly for me, a little sad!

When you think of it, we have had a Pilgrim year, haven’t we? For many of us, it’s been a hard year! A year like no other. I think everyone will be glad to see 2020 scoot on out of our lives and take all the trouble with it!

But remember why we celebrate Thanksgiving? The Pilgrims, in spite of their hardships, took time to remember their blessings! And they were many.

They counted their blessing and gave thanks to the Source.

Even in the worst of times, we are blessed beyond measure! We don’t have less!

God’s benevolent goodness flows to us unceasing in this broken world.

I feel so much better being reminded of my blessings. And when I focus my attention on my Father, the Giver of everything, my heart becomes light and filled with thanks!

FOR FROM HIM AND THROUGH HIM AND FOR HIM ARE ALL THINGS MADE. TO HIM BE THE GLORY FOREVER! AMEN. Rom 11:36

I love this translation the Amplified Bible…

FOR OUT OF HIS FULLNESS (THE SUPERABUNDANCE OF HIS GRACE AND TRUTH) WE HAVE ALL RECEIVED GRACE UPON GRACE (SPIRITUAL BLESSING UPON SPIRITUAL BLESSING, FAVOR UPON FAVOR, AND GIFT HEAPED UPON GIFT). John 1:16

Now, that is truth! The truth is not how I feel. Feelings are fickle. Truth and grace and blessings are real!

When we focus on God and His great love and mercy and grace towards us we don’t have less this Thanksgiving. We have more! Because God is a “more than” God!

Here’s my challenge for you today. Would you make God the center of your Thanksgiving celebration this year?

Let’s make God the very center of our day in all we do and say and think and act!  

Would you give Him thanks all day through close communion with Him and in acts of service and love to those around you?

Spend time with God on Thanksgiving.  Thank Him and praise Him for all He is and all He has done for you!

Throw your hands up releasing handfuls of thankful words and thoughts and spread your fingers wide apart and let those beam of thanksgiving rise up to your Father of light in thanksgiving for His grace upon grace towards you!

AND WHATEVER YOU DO, WHETHER IN WORD OR DEED, DO IT ALL IN THE NAME OF THE LORD JESUS. 1 Thessalonians 5:18

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

23 Comments

  1. Donna Harmon says:

    I prayed before getting out of bed this morning for my thoughts to be more on God. Thank you for your words and suggestions. Also for the reminder of why we celebrate Thanksgiving.?

  2. So beautiful. So true. Our fragile world has given us great cause to pause. There are many lessons to be learned. And all lead to our wise, loving and merciful Father.
    Thank you Yvonne. Sunday blessings to you.

  3. Laurene Shewan says:

    For several years, I volunteered at our Church’s Thanksgiving Dinner Outreach Ministry, which won’t be happening this year. As my family isn’t comfortable with dining out or eating at each other’s homes, it will just be the two of us and the Lord. He’s an easy dinner guest to have! A little bread, a little wine, maybe some fish and He’s happy.

  4. Thank you Evonne, for teaching me more about our Bible and the importance of spending more time in God’s presence. Not sure what our family is planning for Thanksgiving, but we will focus more on the Lords mercy and grace to those around us.

  5. Susan Sieg says:

    Thank you for the wonderful post. I always look forward to your posts, but specifically on Sunday!

  6. I love the tossing up praises to God imagery. In a sermon this morning I heard “For blessings known and unknown, for those remembered and not remembered, Give Thanks” for God has gone before us and smoothed the road in ways we might not even be aware.

  7. What wonderful words. I love reading your Sunday Posts. I think about your words all week. We like so many sit on the couch and go to church, every Sunday. Between the Pastor’s words and your wonderful Sunday posts, I have lots to think about during the week.

  8. Yvonne, I really, really needed this. Thank you and God bless you and yours this Thanksgiving and always. ?❤?

  9. Thank you, I also needed to hear this. I was feeling a tad sorry for myself knowing we won’t be having our usual Thanksgiving day. A wonderful reminder to be thankful for what we do have!

  10. Beautiful message!
    I read on a FB posting this week that Thanksgiving is NOT a religious holiday. I disagree!
    Thanks for reminding all of us! “Even in the worst of times, we are blessed beyond measure! We don’t have less!”

    1. Of course, it is Wanda! We are a country built on Biblical beliefs. The cancel culture at work!

  11. Hi Yvonne ,
    A little late in reading your beautiful message . One of my happiest times was having our first Thanksgiving with our American , christian friends in our fellowship in Frankfurt Germany . It was during the first Desert Storm and many of the men from our fellowship were already over there . It too was tinged with sadness , but it drew us all closer than ever and we prayed a prayer of gratitude to our sovereign Lord watching over each and every family member , in the church and away . It was a wonderful day , filled with love , care and true gratitude . We are very much praying for America in these difficult times .

    1. Angie, thank you for your family’s service. And for sharing this beautiful Christmas memory.

  12. Thank you for your beautiful words today Yvonne. It’s so important to be grateful everyday for what the Lord has given us. We are truly BLESSED!!! When I was growing up, we always had a 10am Thanksgiving Day service in church. Mom would stay home to do the cooking, but the rest of us kids along with Dad went to church to give Thanks. It made us set aside some time to be grateful in God’s presence for his many blessings. Those are wonderful memories. God Bless you Yvonne and all your readers. I wish you all a very happy and blessed Thanksgiving Day.

  13. Thank you so much for this beautiful and loving reminder.

  14. Lisa Dorries says:

    I love Philippines 4 6-7, and here it is in the words of Joyce Meyers:

    Allow me to paraphrase these scriptures in my language for you. Don’t be upset about anything, no matter what is happening. Pray about it, and tell God your need. While you are waiting for God to move, be a very thankful and grateful person for all that God has done for you already. (Note: Let me say here that if God never did one thing for us except writing our names in the Lamb’s Book of Life, that alone is more than enough.)

    Being thankful from the heart is necessary for the receiving of God’s continued favors in our lives. Then verse 7 says after this:

    Have no anxiety or care,
    Tell God your need, and
    Be thankful.
    Then you will have tremendous peace and contentment no matter what state you are in while you are waiting for God to work out His will in your life.

    Now, I better get ready for Thanksgiving Day!

    1. Thank you Lisa. Just one thing… God brings rain on the good and the evil. My paraphrasing of Scripture. Even people who don’t recognize God as the giver of blessings still get them. That shows me just how wonderful my Father is!