The Lost Holiday...

At church we sing a chorus that goes like this...

Thanks, thanks, I give you thanks

for all you've done.

I am so blessed,

my soul has found rest,

Oh Lord, I give you thanks.

Whew, the holidays are upon us once again.  My oh my how time FLIES when you are having fun!  It's true that time never stands still and the older I get the more I realize just how short life truly is. The years just seem to be slipping away. 

Every year it seems as if Christmas comes earlier and earlier, perhaps it's the hustle and bustle of life, but more than likely it's because the stores start stocking their shelves with Christmas goods shortly after Labor Day.  In recent years this little tradition of theirs has started bothering me.  Why, you might ask?  Well, because a very important holiday, Thanksgiving, has been lost in the shuffle. It has been gobbled up and lost somewhere between Halloween and Christmas.  Commercialism has eaten up Thanksgiving.

Even on the homefront more and more folks are decorating their homes for Christmas before Thanksgiving has even arrived.  People everywhere are making sure to deck the halls for Ol' Saint Nicks arrival but have made no arrangements to be thankful to the Almighty God. 

Of course, this should be no surprise to believers as the bible says that in the last days an unthankful generation would emerge (2 Tim. 3:1-5).  Folks, we have made it to the last days!  If there has ever been a more unthankful generation, it's this one, and I'm not just talking about forgetting the Thanksgiving holiday.  I am talking about just plain ol' unthankfulness.  Just as the stores have pushed Thanksgiving out of the way, so have people pushed thankfulness to God out of their hearts.

There was a day when folks sat down at the dinner table every evening and gave thanks for the blessings of the day, but sadly those days are long gone in most homes, and now it's getting harder and harder to find folks who will even stop and take just one day out of their lives to give thanks to a loving God who gave them that life. 

Oh sure, everyone anticipates a day or two off work and a big turkey dinner, but do they really stop and take the time to be thankful for God's many bountiful blessings anymore, or is their attitude of thankfulness merely a greasy chuckle of a prayer that says, "Thank ya Lord, Thank ya Lord for this food, over the lips and through the gums, watch out stomach here it comes."

True thankfulness is a lifestyle and should be observed everyday, but at the very least one day a year should be set aside for the giving of thanks to our creator.

This year let's resurrect a lost holiday... THANKSGIVING...and instead of just giving thanks for a nice dinner, how about taking the day and a significant amount of time on your knees to recount God's MANY blessings on your life. 

In EVERY THING give thanks:

for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning YOU.

                            1 Thess. 5:18