Joel Hendon

Thanksgiving: My Family's Most Observed Holiday


Posted: Friday, November 07, 2008

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We've never been those who go bananas over holidays. Quite the opposite, we virtually ignore most of them except of such as Thanksgiving Day, Labor Day, Independence Day and Veteran's Day. But of these, we emphasize Thanksgiving Day more than any. My wife and I thank our almighty God at every meal for the food that He has given us and I also thank Him first thing upon arising for the wonderful night I have just had and for the day He has brought us to. Then as I lay down for the night, I again thank him for the day we have enjoyed and for the blessings contained in it, plus anything else I can think of. There is one thing I propose to do, and that is to always express my humble thanks to our creator for all He has given us and all that he does or has done for us.

Then, I also read of the origin of Thanksgiving and I can actually feel as if I was among those in their extremely difficult days when they gathered together to give thanks to God for their crops and the blessings they had enjoyed that year. In 1621, the Pilgrims made a feast to celebrate their first successful harvest and to Thank God for it. They invited the Wampanoag Indians and we are told that three chiefs and some 90 others attended.. Those people really lived hard and they were overwhelmed with joy and thankfulness just to have been able to harvest enough to see them through the approaching winter.

There are many things which are traditional in the holiday fare, but we also do not pay much attention to them. As we do on most holidays when those who are employed are off for the day, our family gets together for a meal and reminiscing of days gone by. But our meal consists of those things we like more than what is customary. Usually, if it is held at our house, my wife will bake a couple of hens since we prefer them over turkey. We all love dressing with either, and usually some of the children will bring other things that are customary but I can personally do with out such as cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie.

Our primary objective of the gathering is to have the family together again and for sure, to thank God for the fact that we are still able to be up and around and have all of these many comforts and blessings every day of our lives. And they are innumerable. Regardless of the things we may have to dampen our spirits, we still have more to be thankful for than any other nation in this world. We are richly blessed. I try never to forget that. I have a number of health problems. I have a certain amount pain every day of my life...BUT, it is not nearly unbearable pain and I am so terribly grateful for that. And when it does become quite severe, I take one or two tablets of acetaminophen. As little as people may think about it, these are extreme blessings. I wonder how many realize that those pilgrims suffered many things and had no such miraculous medical and technical blessings that we now enjoy. The least we can do is be very thankful for all of these things as they were just to think they would have food for the winter.

I hope all of you have a very happy day on the 27 th of this month and most of all, I hope you will stop to realize just how blessed we are, and thank the one responsible. May God continue to bless America.

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Author Biography: Joel Hendon was born near Gadsden Alabama. He attended public schools in Cherokee County, Alabama and after serving a tour of duty in the U.S. Army during the Korean War, attended Jacksonville State University, majoring in Business Administration. He became a Christian in 1948, and although he followed secular work as a career and retired from Allied Signal Aerospace, he is an avid student of the Holy Bible and related works as well as biblical history. He has an extensive website of conservative religious and political articles.http://hebronics.org/index.html

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