Thanksgiving   Count your blessings every day!       or  

It is great to have one special day set aside each year specifically for Thanksgiving -- a national day of celebration for all the wonderful things for which we surely do need to be thankful.   While it would be impossible to make a complete list of all the wonderful blessings for which we should be thankful,   we really should make a much greater effort to count our uncountable blessings and give thanks to God each and every day  ...  and frequently throughout every day.


Heavenly Father, on Thanksgiving Day
We bow our hearts to you and pray.
We give you thanks for all that you have done ...
Especially for the gift of Jesus, your Son.

For the beauty in nature, your glory we see
For joy and health, friends, and family,
For daily provision, your mercy and care
These are the blessings you graciously share.
So today we offer this response of praise
With a promise to follow you all of our days.

Scroll down for lots more ...


George Washington thanked God for America     (upquick edited from USA Today)

It used to be common knowledge that America's first national Thanksgiving Day was established by President George Washington in 1789. That really rankles all of the radical, liberal, left-wing, extremist, fanatics (aka anti-God democrats) who want to force God out of America.

However, Washington's proclamation called for an official "day of public thanksgiving and prayer." Thanksgiving day is an enduring reminder of Washington's wise vision for religious freedom in America.

Both chambers of Congress requested that Washington establish an official day to thank "Almighty God" for allowing the American people to create a republican "form of government for their safety and happiness."

The vast majority of Americans still believe in God and believe that was a good decision.

Our government urged that Americans engage in thanksgiving and prayer to "acknowledge with grateful hearts" the blessings of Almighty God.

There is overwhelming support for this public act of religious observancem, although it is galling to the anti-God activists who have tried in six decades of acrimonious litigation to expunge all evidence of God and faith from public life.

God-haters want us to believe that any expression of religious sentiment or reverence for God in the public square will lead to theocratic control of government by people of faith at the expense of people who have no faith and hate the very idea of God.

President Washington knew better. His vision for the proper role for religion in public life and for church-state relations was both realistic and balanced.

He recognized that government should not be in the business of building houses of worship or of saving souls. However, he was a leader in his Virginia parish of the Church of England. Yet he realized that our new nation should not establish one particular church denomination. The First Amendment, drafted and ratified during Washington's presidency, states that "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion." It does not, however, suggest that congress shall not respect religion or God as the anti-God activists insist.

Washington knew that Americans were a a people of strong faith in God. He knew that the Constitution was crafted to foster and protect freedoms, including a robust right to public expression of religious faith, even if that might offend some segments of the population.

In fact, the protection of religious freedom was so important to Washington that he stated that "the establishment of civil and religious liberty" had been "the motive that induced me to the field of battle" as commander of the Continental Army in the Revolutionary War.

At an event in Washington, D.C., last week launching a new program to protect American religious freedom, Sen. Joseph Lieberman, I-Conn., aptly characterized Washington's motivation: "Washington understood that religious liberty is a fundamental human right and, in the American context, the premise and predecessor for all the other rights that our founding documents and the law give us."

As military commander, Washington demonstrated his commitment to this fundamental right by repeatedly imploring the Continental Congress to provide enough military chaplains of various religious views to meet the needs of his soldiers. As president, he made sure that members of Congress had two chaplains of different religious backgrounds to minister to their spiritual needs.

Both practices endure to this day. Contrary to the exaggerated fears and rhetoric of so-called separationists who hate God, providing chaplains and proclaiming an official day of prayer and thanksgiving never inclined America to establish a national church, much less a theocracy.

Washington routinely, publicly, and unabashedly lauded the benefits of religion in the life of our nation. He merely avoided promoting one religion or sect over another.

Furthermore, the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, over which Washington presided, decided that no religious qualifications, i.e. "no religious test" should ever a criterion for attaining national office. This provision of the Constitution protects from official stigma those of different religious beliefs.

In his 1789 proclamation, President Washington listed the blessings for which his countrymen should be thankful. As we give thanks on our government established Thanksgiving Day, we should remember that from the beginning, Thanksgiving day was based on the wisdom and foresight of our nation's founders to giving thanks to God and establish religious freedom to do so.

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I dreamed that I went to Heaven and an angel was showing me around. We walked to a large workroom filled with angels. My angel guide stopped in front of the first section and said, "This is the Receiving Section. Here, all petitions to God said in prayer are received."

I looked around and saw that it was very busy with many angels sorting out petitions written on voluminous paper sheets and scraps from people all over the world.

Then we went down a long corridor until we reached a second section, and the angel said, "This is the Packaging and Delivery Section. Here, the graces and blessings the people asked for are processed and delivered to the living persons who asked for them." Again, I noticed how busy it was there with many angels working at that station, since so many blessings had been requested and were being packaged for delivery to Earth.

Finally, at the farthest end of the long corridor we stopped at the door of a very small station. To my great surprise, only one angel was seated there, idly doing nothing. "This is the Acknowledgment Section, my angel friend quietly admitted to me. He seemed embarrassed. "How is it that there is no work going on here?" I asked.

"It is so sad," the angel sighed. "After people receive the blessings that they asked for, very few send back acknowledgments."

"How does one acknowledge God's blessings? " I asked.

"Simple," the angel answered. Just say, "Thank you, Lord."

What blessings should we all acknowledge, then? Start with these:

If you have food, clothes, a roof overhead and a place to sleep, you are richer than 75% of the people in the world. If you have any money at all in the bank or in your wallet or even just spare change lying around, then you are among the top 8% of the world's wealthiest people.

If you woke up this morning with more health than illness, then you are more blessed than the many who will not even survive this day.

If you have not had to live through the fear in battle, the loneliness of imprisonment, the agony of torture, or the pangs of starvation, then you are better off than 700 million people in the world who are living in those circumstances.

If you can attend a church without the fear of harassment, arrest, torture, or death, then you are more blessed than three billion people in the world.

If you can just hold your head up and smile, then you are not the norm in the world; but rather, you are quite unique, taking into consideration so many who are living in doubt and despair.

If you can even just read this message, then you are doubly blessed because someone cared enough about you to share this with you ... and you are more blessed than more than two billion people in the world who cannot read at all.

So, count your blessings and urge everyone you know to remember how blessed we are.

Thank God for all your blessings, especially for family and friends.


Twas the night of Thanksgiving, but I just couldn't sleep.
I tried counting backwards, I tried counting sheep.
The leftovers beckoned - the dark meat and white,
but I fought the temptation with all of my might.

Tossing and turning with anticipation,
the thought of a snack became infatuation.
So, I raced to the kitchen, flung open the door,
and gazed at the fridge, full of goodies galore.
Gobbled up turkey and buttered potatoes,
pickles and carrots, beans and tomatoes.

I felt myself swelling so plump and so round,
'til all of a sudden, I rose off the ground.
I crashed through the ceiling, floating into the sky,
with a mouthful of pudding and a handful of pie.
But, I managed to yell as I soared past the trees ...
happy eating to all ... pass the cranberries, please.

May your stuffing be tasty,
May your turkey be plump.
May your potatoes 'n gravy have nary a lump.
May your yams be delicious.
May your pies take the prize,
May your Thanksgiving dinner stay off of your thighs.