I love Thanksgiving. For some, it signals the start of the Holiday Season. For others, it’s a time when we can get together with families and eat ten times more than we should. Recently, I heard someone ask: “What is Thanksgiving really all about?”

Some of you are familiar with my experience at a parent teacher conference several years ago. The school had all this Thanksgiving stuff up on the walls. So when I asked the teacher at the end of the conference what the kids were being taught about Thanksgiving, she gave me a very nice, politically correct answer about how Pilgrims and Indians were thankful for getting through a difficult winter together. But then I asked the “Uh-Oh” question: Who were they giving thanks to? I noted that while they were indeed grateful, the important part is who they chose to give thanks to—God! In 1676, the Pilgrims at their governing council set apart June 29th as “a day of solemn thanksgiving and praise to God for his goodness and favor…and that He may behold us, a people offering praise, and thereby glorifying Him.”

The tradition they began in 1676 was carried on by George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, who in 1863, when things were looking very bleak, officially declared Thanksgiving as a solemn holiday to be celebrated on the fourth Thursday in November. In the midst of the Civil War, President Lincoln issued the Thanksgiving Proclamation which read:

“The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come….

No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God…. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States…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 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.”

President Lincoln decreed that we should come together as a Nation, regardless of our race, creed, or nationality, and give thanks to God for His blessing on our country. Seemed like a good idea in 1863; seems like an even better idea in 2016.

Hopefully we can take a moment to reflect on, and be thankful for, the important things in life. The country we live in, the freedom we enjoy, and the relationships we share are just a few of the blessings we experience. As you gather with friends and families, we hope that you, too, have much to be thankful for.

Have a great Thanksgiving.

Mike Regan
Chief of Relationship Development
TranzAct Technologies