We often say we are thankful for various things on Thanksgiving Day but it begs the question – to Whom do we give thanks today?
Our Founders had no such doubts:
On September 25, 1789, the following resolution was passed (I cite pertinent parts):
Mr. Boudinot said he could not think of letting the session pass without offering an opportunity to all the citizens of the United States of joining with one voice in returning to Almighty God their sincere thanks for the many blessings he had poured down upon them.
“Resolved, that…the President of the United States…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 signal favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a constitution of government for their safety and happiness.”
(By the way, I found this at this book that I strongly recommend as ammunition against a false and evil separation of church and state which has the effect of denying our history and removing God from it and our public institutions!)
President George Washington did in fact proclaim a day of Thanksgiving – on Thursday, November 26, 1789 (I see the light coming on for a reader or two – oh that’s why we celebrate Thanksgiving on the Fourth Thursday of November!) and he said, in pertinent part:
“Whereas it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God,…Now, therefore, I recommend and assign Thursday, the twenty-sixth day of November next, to be devoted by the people of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being who is the beneficent author of all good that was,…our sincere and humble thanks for his kind care and protection of the people of the country…And also that we may unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations, and beseech him to pardon our national and other transgressions…to promote the knowledge and practice of TRUE RELIGION and virtue…”
Let there be no doubt Who thanks will be given in the Sanders household this Thanksgiving. May your Thanksgiving be blessed by the Lord Jesus Christ and His Spirit! (Here is how to know and trust in Jesus for the first time, which would a cause for great thanksgiving!
Article written by: Elwood "Sandy" Sanders
About Elwood Sanders
Elwood "Sandy" Sanders is a Hanover attorney who is an Appellate Procedure Consultant for Lantagne Legal Printing and has written ten scholarly legal articles. Sandy was also Virginia's first Appellate Defender and also helped bring curling in VA! (None of these titles imply any endorsement of Sanders’ views)
- Web |
- More Posts (1812)
