Thanksgiving is fast approaching

What are you Thankful for this year? I have been pondering Thanksgiving, as I am feeling blue about not being surrounded by our usual family group. Yes, we are very fortunate that Ron's brother is fairly close and this gives us family to celebrate with. . .a family we did not have the opportunity to spend holidays with before our move, and are very happy to have this opportunity now. However, I am still blue about not being with my family or Ron's family back in Michigan. . . full of Grandmas, Grandpas, Aunts, Uncles, and lots of cousins. We are in a new season now, and must find new purpose and new traditions.

I was doing a little research to help me with my attitude toward this new season and found the following on Bible.com. Thought I would share with you all.

Thanksgiving is one of our main national holidays here in the U.S.A. A good question to ask is "Are we as Christians celebrating it the way the Lord would have us celebrate, or have we compromised with the world?" Have we lost the emphasis on thanksgiving and prayer and shifted it to a gluttonous feast of food, drink and games like those in the world have done? God wants us to enjoy family, friends and feasting, but leaving God out of the day breaks His heart. More and more the media is referring to this holiday as "turkey day" instead of Thanksgiving Day. They also eliminate the object of who we are to offer our thanks. We are just to be "thankful" we are told. Who should our thanks be directed to? The object of our thanks for our many blessings, should be directed to the Lord God. It should not just be a general "thanks."
The first American Thanksgiving was celebrated less than a year after the Christian Plymouth colonists had settled in the new land of America. The first Thanksgiving Day, set aside for the special purpose of prayer as well as celebration, was decreed by Governor William Bradford in July 30, 1623. There were harvest festivals, or days of thanking God for plentiful crops. During the Revolutionary War, eight special days of thanks were observed for victories and for being saved from dangers. On November 26, 1789, President George Washington issued a general proclamation for a day of thanks. Our national day of thanksgiving was proclaimed by President Lincoln in 1863 with these words, "a day of Thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father."
Today we still celebrate this national and legal holiday, but are we celebrating in the right manner as Christians? Are we forgetting the main purpose of this day is prayer and thanksgiving as we feast and fellowship? The Lord is not opposed to our feasting and our gathering of friends and family to dine, but if our only prayer is to ask God to bless our food are we not forgetting the real meaning of this day? God delights in blessing us as His children. However, do we, as His children delight in blessing Him with our prayers and thanks? Do our celebrations revolve more around the meal and the football game that follows, than around the discussion of the things we should be thankful for? Many are worshipping the idol of ball games on holidays instead of focusing on the true meaning of Thanksgiving. Not that watching games are wrong in themselves, but many have forgotten the Lord and have replaced thanking God, praying and reading the Bible with watching games, drinking and eating. Let us ask God to forgive us and truly celebrate this day in real thanksgiving and prayer.

With this in mind, my intention is to share some of the things I am thankful for between now and Thanksgiving.

I am thankful for . . .
All of the great holidays I have had the pleasure to share with my family all together and complete. I have AWESOME memories from these simple holiday get togethers and thank God for my awesome family!!!!

Psalm 107:1
Oh give thanks to the LORD for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever!