Thanksgiving 2025

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Thanksgiving is a holiday many people tend to take for granted. The internet and popular culture are rife with allusions to being annoyed about having to spend time with family and jokes about the dread of hearing the same old stories from their "boring" uncle.

I am currently in a Christian Ethics course in college, and it is on my mind to be thankful for all that I am blessed with. In America, we have almost unlimited access to fresh drinking water and the internet, which we all too easily use to complain about our lives.

According to UNICEF, "2.1 billion people still lacked safely managed drinking water, 1.5 billion had basic services, 287 million had limited services, 302 million relied on unimproved sources, and 106 million collected water directly from surface water sources such as rivers and lakes."(Unicef.org)

Given the disparities experienced throughout the developing world, it is a powerful exercise to take inventory of the blessings we have. 

We can stop in the middle of the day, look up to heaven, and thank the Lord for being able to walk around in a country as a Christian. We were promised persecution, and many people are suffering all around the world for just existing as a believer.

Harvesting an attitude of gratitude is such a blessing afforded to us as Christians! When we humble ourselves and thank the Lord for all the little things in life and pay attention to his mighty hand directing our lives, we are blessed with the peace of his spirit being fanned into a flame inside of us!

Hallelujah! Thank the Lord!

Let's remember what this Holiday is about. Here is a very brief history of Thanksgiving!

Pilgrims: Giving Thanks

Our American Thanksgiving national holiday came about from these early feasts. The Pilgrims and Israelites had much in common. They both escaped religious persecution and bondage by going to new lands and were blessed by God. The Pilgrims began the American tradition of giving thanks to God based on biblical accounts. Giving thanks is to be a part of all prayers. Some of the most remembered passages on the giving of thanks are the following: "Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus" (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18). "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God" (Philippians 4:6). (All About History)


 UNICEF - https://data.unicef.org/topic/water-and-sanitation/drinking-water/

All About History - https://www.allabouthistory.org/pilgrims.htm

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