As we all begin to feel the rush of the holiday season get underway, I want to take a moment and share a few thoughts about Thanksgiving and gratitude.
If you look up the difference between thankful and grateful, you’ll find that thankful refers to an emotional response to a specific event, like getting a present on your birthday or Christmas morning. Grateful, however, is a deeper feeling of appreciation, not for just one specific thing, but rather an all-encompassing feeling for your life or family, for example.
If you know the television sit-com “Last Man Standing,” starring Michigan actor Tim Allen, there was an episode in Season 5, called “The Gratitude List.” It centered on Thanksgiving and how the mom on the show was disappointed that one of her daughters dismissed the Gratitude List as goofy. But in the end, that daughter gave one of the most heart-felt lists of gratitude, and it all centered on family.
I am most grateful to our God in Heaven and all the blessings He’s given me … my loving husband, family and friends.
But also, I’m grateful for His gift to all of us … this Great Nation. It was God who put in place, at the perfect time, our Founding Fathers. With divine intervention, they conceived this amazing Constitutional Republic. During its creation, George Washington once wrote, “…the new Constitution, it appears to me little short of a miracle. It demonstrates as visibly the finger of Providence any possible event in the course of human affairs can ever designate it.”
After watching the new Ken Burns documentary “The American Revolution,” on PBS, I have new appreciation for what those patriots endured, to secure our freedom and liberties. General George Washington marveled at the protection he received from God, writing, “By the all-powerful dispensations of Providence, I have been protected beyond all human probability and expectation; for I had four bullets through my coat and two horses shot under me, yet escaped unhurt..” https://www.mountvernon.org/library/digitalhistory/past-projects/quotes?search=&topic=All
Fast forward to today, and this Country still is a source of immense pride and gratitude. During the Republican National Convention last year, Detroit Pastor Lorenzo Sewell said, President Donald Trump surviving the attempted assassination in Butler, Pennsylvania was a sign of “a miracle by a millimeter.” “Could it be that the King of Glory … the God who is mighty in battle protected Donald Trump because he wants to use him for such a time as this?”
Sadly, Conservative Activist Charlie Kirk did not survive an assassin’s bullet. But I believe, in his death, his passion for God, family and this country are now an even bigger movement. Kirk’s widow Erika said in an impassioned speech, “They killed Charlie because he preached a message of patriotism, faith and of God’s merciful love. But they should all know this.If you thought that my husband’s mission was powerful before, you have no idea,” she said. “You have no idea what you just have unleashed across this entire country.” https://www.foxnews.com/politics/erika-kirk-breaks-silence-after-husband-charlies-assassination-address-turning-point-usa-headquarters
There are so many moments in our country’s history for which we all can be grateful. It would take me days to list them all. I’m not naïve. I know we’re not perfect. But this is the nation by which every other nation is judged. This is the country of opportunity. We have liberty and freedom. Freedom to criticize what we don’t like, and love passionately what we do love.
So, this Thursday, when you’re sitting down to your Thanksgiving feast with family and friends, give thanks and gratitude for all your blessings, including living in the United States of America, The Greatest Country ever conceived.