Thinking About Our Attitude On Thanksgiving.

Thinking about our Attitude On Thanksgiving.

Psalms 100:1-5.

The first North American Thanksgiving is traced back to 1578 when the English navigator Martin Frobisher held a formal ceremony in what is now called Newfoundland. We don’t believe this is when the kissing-of-the-cod tradition began, but there was indeed a great party to give thanks for surviving the long journey across the Atlantic. Forty years later, and also after crossing the ocean, French settlers led by Samuel de Champlain in Nova Scotia would hold huge feasts of thanks. They got a little more organized and formed "The Order of Good Cheer" where they shared their food with Indian neighbours. This would be around the same time as the American pilgrims gave thanks in 1621 for the bounty that ended a year of hardships and death. Of significance, it was at this time when the main course the turkey made its first appearance at the feast. For the next two centuries, people on both sides of the border would informally set aside a day in November to lift a glass and give cheers to the harvest. But the Americans beat us to the punch, so to speak, when in 1863 Abe Lincoln’s government officially declared that Thanksgiving would be celebrated on the 4th Thursday of November. It’s been celebrated on that day ever since. We couldn’t make up minds that easily, it seems. Our Canadian Thanksgiving bounced around the calendar quite a bit. It was first celebrated as a national holiday on November 6, 1879. Many different dates were used after that, the most popular being the 3rd Monday in October. The thinking was that this simply made sense because of our shorter growing season. After World War I it was moved back to the second week of November to coincide with Armistice Day. But finally, in 1957, Parliament said enough’s enough and formally proclaimed the 2nd Monday of October as "a day of General Thanksgiving to Almighty God for the bountiful harvest with which Canadian has been blessed. I don’t know if it matters or not, but Canadians chose their date for Thanksgiving based on seasonal convenience, and Americans chose their date to ensure that there would be 4 full weeks of Christmas shopping.

This is the day where we set aside time in our busy schedules to give thanks to God. Now, there is nothing wrong with that but the word of God tells us that this should be our attitude daily, weekly, monthly and yearly.

Eph. 5:19, 20. "Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, ALWAYS giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ." I Thess. 5:16-18. "Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. The way Paul’s is talking one would think that he is preaching in church because of his main subject which is PRAISE, THANKSGIVING. Paul is talking about what Christian’s attitudes are to be towards God and to each other.

One young lady wrote home from college, "Dear Mom: Sorry I haven’t written sooner. My arm really has been broken. I broke it, and my left leg, when I jumped from he second floor of my dormitory...when we had the fire. We were lucky. A young service station attendant saw the blaze and called the Fire Department. They were there in minutes. I was in the hospital for a few days. Paul, the service station attendant, came to see me every day. And because it was taking so long to get our dormitory liveable again, I moved in with him. He has been so nice. I must admit that I am pregnant. Paul and I plan to get married just as soon as he can get a divorce. I hope things are fine at home. I’m doing fine, and will write more when I get the chance. Love,

Your daughter, Susie.

P.S. None of the above is true. But I did get a "C" in Sociology and flunked Chemistry. I just wanted you to be in the right attitude when you read this. To be thankful in all circumstances to have a right attitude. Only then we will be able to give thanks to the Lord always. Now, I believe there are at least three attitudes that steal away our gratitude and keep us from being thankful.

1) One is our pride. This is the attitude that says, "Nobody ever gave me anything, I worked hard for everything I have." For years you studied hard and now it is finally paying off. With this kind of attitude, we feel that we have no one to thank but ourselves.

2) A critical spirit or constant complaining. Instead of being grateful, this person will always find something to complain about. "A lady known as an incurable grumbler constantly complained about everything. At last her preacher thought he had found something about which she would be happy, for her farm crop was the finest for miles around. When he met her, he said with a beaming smile, `You must be very happy Mary. Everyone is saying how healthy your potatoes look this year.’ `True they’re pretty good, but what am I going to do when I need bad ones to feed the pigs.