[ampaterry]

“Whereas it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favor; and Whereas both Houses of Congress have, by their joint committee, requested me 'to recommend to the people of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer, to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favors of Almighty God - - -' ”

So begins the declaration made by George Washington to establish the day of Thanksgiving which we celebrate today. Notice the distinct lack, in the presidency and in both houses of congress, of objection to this obvious 'violation' of the 'separation of church and state'. This may be attributed to the fact that the colonists had not been educated in an Atheistic school system, and the ACLU had not been formed yet.

Our forefathers KNEW that their existence was due to the providence of God. They knew that the early colonists who arrived in 1620 had given thanks for their survival the following season, 1621, and held a grand feast to celebrate God's blessings on them. This was repeated each year at various times in the harvest season, but was not formalized until Washington made the first declaration. The date was set in 1941 to the present fourth Thursday in November, following a period of moving it around for marketing reasons, which brought many protests from the citizens of our nation.

Sometimes folks have a hard time keeping themselves in a continual attitude of thankfulness to God. We should work on this, and try to attain it. But on this day, at the very least, let us follow this passage from Psalms:

Psalm 95:1-6 (KJV); O come, let us sing unto the LORD: let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation. Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving, and make a joyful noise unto him with psalms. For the LORD is a great God, and a great King above all gods. In his hand are the deep places of the earth: the strength of the hills is his also. The sea is his, and he made it: and his hands formed the dry land. O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the LORD our maker.

May God bless each one of you with the ability to realize you have much to be thankful for.

For instance; my wife has always been into horses, working part-time jobs when she was 13 to pay for the upkeep on a horse. I joined her in this interest by buying a double registered palomino quarter horse who was two years old. A few years ago she fell in the horse lot and could not get up again; her aged body just couldn't go on. I called the vet to come and put her down, and he was out on another call and could not get out here in less than four hours. I looked at her shivvering on the cold winter ground and knew I could not make her go through more hours of torment. I got my 1911, aimed between her eyes and prayed for god to guide the shot so she would not suffer. The horrible shot rang out, and she died instantly.
My immediate reaction was sorrow at my loss and anger that she was gone.

Then I realized that I had been blessed to spend thirty years of my life with this wonderful animal.

The same has been true of several different dogs that were MINE.
I miss them all, I grieve for each, but my mind is filled with so many wonderful memories of them that each is still a blessing to me.

I am thankful, Lord -