Americans began celebrating Thanksgiving long before there was a United States. For hundreds of years, the colonies celebrated a day for local communities to come together and give thanks to God.
It was not until the height of national division, during the Civil War, that President Abraham Lincoln first set a uniform date for the nationwide celebration of Thanksgiving.
“In the midst of a civil war of unequalled magnitude and severity,” Lincoln wrote, “order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict.”
Lincoln went on to note that the Civil War had not prevented settlers from expanding the nation’s borders, nor slowed the development of the land’s natural resources, nor stopped the population from continuing to grow. “They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God,” Lincoln wrote, “who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy.”
There is no civil war today as there was when Lincoln first set a national day of thanks, and thank goodness for that. But the nation is clearly divided to an extent perhaps not seen since then.
Woke police have so captured higher education and corporate America that most people are now scared to speak their minds in the classroom and at work. And forget about a president mentioning the “Most High God” in a proclamation; that simply is no longer acceptable. The First Amendment has never been in greater danger.
Indeed, the entirety of the Bill of Rights is under attack as Democrats seek to undermine the very structure of our constitutional republic. Packing the court, musing over how to add the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico as states, abusing executive authority to pass vaccine mandates, abandoning the rule of law to enable a mass illegal migration. We are teetering close to no longer being a country of laws.
This November, however, has ushered in a season of hope. The scales are falling from people’s eyes. Parents across the country are pushing back against the hateful lies told about our country in public schools. Majorities now say they want illegal migrants turned back at the border. Prosecutors who have refused to send criminals to jail are facing recall elections in the bluest of cities.
The public is awakening. People know there are still many reasons why we should be thankful to live in this glorious country. Focus on those reasons and have a wonderful holiday.
Remember this: our forefathers — regardless of what revisionists historians claim — embedded Christian principles in our nation’s structure. We would be wise to remember that and honor the fact that even though not part of the Declaration of Independence or the U.S. Constitution, “One nation under God” was enshrined in the Pledge of Allegiance by our national leaders. They KNEW where good comes from. And they applauded that.
While you share these holidays with those you love, remember to express your thanks for all that you have — even the bad stuff. “Thank God IN all things” is the verbiage used during Thanksgiving dinner prayers. It doesn’t say we should thank God FOR all things. We all have problems, roadblocks, and travesties in our lives. But we all live in the United States of America!
We truly have it pretty good.
Be thankful!
