A Proclamation of Thanksgiving

Did you know it was President Lincoln that declared Thanksgiving a holiday?
Have you ever read his actual proclamation making it a holiday?
It's pretty wonderful.... as most of his proclamations were! And I think it's probably a good idea to read it every year to remind us why we celebrate the holiday! So here are just a few exerts for you to read until you can read the whole thing!!

"The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the hear which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God. In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed and harmony has prevailed.......... I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States...to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility and Union."

Dont you think so much of it applies to today? We may not be fighting a civil war, but our country is most definitely divided!! There are still widows, orphans, mourners and sufferers.
One thing we dont do so well at.....
Remembering where our providence and blessings come from. So this Thanksgiving, and every day, I hope we set aside time to give thanks to Him who deserves it most!!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!