Attitude of Gratitude

Thank God!

The United States has emphasized gratefulness to God with a national remembrance since 1789, the year after the US Constitution was adopted. President George Washington, at the urging of Congress, proclaimed Thursday, November 26

“to be devoted by the People of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being, who is the beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be-- That we may then all unite in rendering unto him our sincere and humble thanks--for his kind care and protection of the People of this Country previous to their becoming a Nation.”

While Americans are not the only people to celebrate Thanksgiving in October or November, our observance is deeply rooted in an attitude of gratitude toward God.

Abraham Lincoln’s Thanksgiving Proclamation of 1863 is an example. Although the nation was reeling in the grips of a devastating Civil War, Lincoln thought it “fit and proper” for the nation that the blessings of God “should be solemnly, reverently, and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American people.” Further, Lincoln continued,

“I do, therefore, invite my fellow-citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next as a Day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens. And I recommend to them that, while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners, or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty hand to heal the wounds of the nation, and to restore it, as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes, to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility, and union.”

Amen! This sounds like a prayer we Americans in 2024 could heartily enjoin to one another.

The transcript of Lincoln’s memorable Thanksgiving Proclamation of 1863 is here. The transcript of Washington’s 1789 proclamation is here.

Let us joyfully, gratefully, and solemnly acknowledge “the gracious gifts of the Most High God.”

Happy Thanksgiving!

Please feel free to leave comments below.

Edward Wolfe

Edward Wolfe has been a fan of Christian apologetics since his teenage years, when he began seriously to question the truth of the Bible and the reality of Jesus. About twenty years ago, he started noticing that Christian evidences roughly fell into five categories, the five featured on this website.
Although much of his professional life has been in Christian circles (12 years on the faculties of Pacific Christian College, now a part of Hope International University, and Manhattan Christian College and also 12 years at First Christian Church of Tempe), much of his professional life has been in public institutions (4 years at the University of Colorado and 19 years at Tempe Preparatory Academy).
His formal academic preparation has been in the field of music. His bachelor degree was in Church Music with a minor in Bible where he studied with Roger Koerner, Sue Magnusson, Russel Squire, and John Rowe; his master’s was in Choral Conducting where he studied with Howard Swan, Gordon Paine, and Roger Ardrey; and his doctorate was in Piano Performance, Pedagogy, and Literature, where he also studied group dynamics, humanistic psychology, and Gestalt theory with Guy Duckworth.
He and his wife Louise have four grown children and six grandchildren.

https://WolfeMusicEd.com
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