Thanksgiving Blessing

Thanksgiving Blessing ...

I want to start out today by apologizing for the problems that you have encountered with Freedom Fighter. We are all frustrated with the inconsistency of the email version of our daily ministry. Please pray that we will be able to figure out how to get back on track so that you will receive it on a consistent basis. If you do not receive your email version you can follow it on the America's KESWICK website: http://www.americaskeswick.org/ or from Facebook. Again we apologize for the inconvenience.

Today's reading comes from the writings of Charles Swindoll in his book, SEASONS OF LIFE (Multnomah). Chuck lists several reasons why he loves Thanksgiving. His third reason for loving this holiday is that it one filled with national nostalgia.

This holiday takes us back to a simple slice of life over 350 years ago when our forefathers and foremothers realized their dependence on each other to survive. With Thanksgiving comes a surge of patriotism, a quiet inner peace that whispers, I AM PROUD TO BE AN AMERICAN.

I recall as a little barefoot boy with a cowlick of snow-white hair on my forehead, standing erect in my classroom repeating the "Pledge of Allegiance" on Thanksgiving season. Our nation was at war and times were hard. My teacher had lost her husband on the bloodwashed shores of Normandy. As we bowed our heads for prayer she wept aloud. I did too. All the class joined in. She stumbled through one of the most moving expressions of gratitude and praise that ever emerged from a soul plunged in pain.

At that time in my young life, I fell strangely in love with Thanksgiving. Lost in sympathy and a boy's pity for his teacher, I walked home slowly that afternoon. Although only a child, I had profound feelings of gratitude for my country ... my friends ... my school ... my church ... my family. I swore before God that would fight to the end to keep this land free from foes who would want to take away America's distinctives and the joys of living in this good land. I have never forgotten my childhood promise. I never shall.

Thanksgiving puts steel into our patriotic veins. It reminds is of our great heritage. It carries us back with numbing nostalgia to that first dreadful winter at Plymouth where less than half the handful of people survived. It speaks in clear, crisp tones of forgotten terms, like: integrity ... bravery ... respect ... faith ... vigilance ... dignity ... honor ... freedom ... discipline ... sacrifice ... godliness. Its historic halls echo with the voices of Washington, Franklin, Jefferson, Adams, Lincoln, Lee and Jackson who challenge us to trim off the fat of indolence, compromise, passivity, and the stigma of strife. It gives a depth of relevance and meaning to the nineteenth-century words of Katherine Lee Bates:

O beautiful for spacious skies
for amber waves of grain,
For purple mountain majesties
above the fruited plain!

O beautiful for patriot dream
that sees beyond the years
Thine alabaster cities gleam
Undimmed by human tears!

America! America!
God shed His grace on thee
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!

Good thoughts for us to ponder as we prepare our hearts for Thanksgiving Day! -- Bill Welte is President and CEO of America's KESWICK

God's WORD for US: Proverbs 24; Ezekiel 22-23; 1 Peter 1

Great Quote: Parents, you will teach your children more by scheduling regular times to nurture the relationship between husband and wife than you would ever teach them through a lecture on commitment. Although it is important for you pray to for your child, seeking the Lord for that perfect spouse for them, it is equally important that you teach them through your example how to cherish the future gift of a companion that the Lord has in store for them. Katherine Walden