Thanksgiving Day Prayers, Traditions, and Reflection
With Thanksgiving Dinner just around the corner, we’re nearing the beginning of the Holiday Season, you know that hectic time period between Thanksgiving and New Years, which can include a number of interfaith celebrations like Christmas, Hanukah, Ramadan or even some of those national celebrations like the pigskin game and the parade to name just a few. Before getting lost trying to catch the early-bird sales at the mall, take a moment to find ways to prayerfully reflect on the past year and make sure that this year’s traditions don’t suffer because of a slammed schedule.
One of our greatest Thanksgiving Traditions was my father’s opening prayer (see other Thanksgiving Day prayer ideas). Since my parents hosted our family and friends at their house, my father would graciously open with a word of prayer. Taking into consideration each family’s challenges and successes over the past year and including those with a touch of thankfulness.
My father’s thanksgiving prayer naturally led into another one of our greatest traditions: the Thankful Discussion. During Thanksgiving dinner everyone around the table would take a moment to reflect and share what it was they were most grateful for over the past year. Instead of huddling around the “Turkey Day” game, we spent a few extra minutes around the table engaging in some great edifying conversations about the things that mattered most this past year and how much we treasured those things. These ranged anywhere from a fairly personal level (a new toy or family member) to a national level (our government or leaders). Pausing for a moment can be the perfect way to prepare our hearts and minds for the holiday season by keeping us farther away from the hectic holiday shuffle mindset.
Are you thankful for your family’s safety and health? What about your current religious freedoms and liberties? Or maybe it’s something simple as learning to ride a bicycle?
Thaddeaus | January 9, 2008 11:52 am
Eloquently worded and heart felt! It has been a blessed year for my family and myself. God Bless!
Olivia | December 16, 2007 4:49 am
Isn’t it funny how sometimes - whether we are a child or a full grown, mortgage holding adult - we can be most thankful for something small like a new toy or learning to ride a bike. Instead of getting all heady and intense, we can settle into our true selves at Thanksgiving and throughout the Holiday season, and let a little “Thanks!” explode from within. What am I thankful for? For a body that, though a little achey from tendonitis, can still jump and move to my most favorite Christmas songs. For a husband who makes FABULOUS playlists for me on my iPod. For the 2 foot tall tree in my living room and a friend who is coming over tonight to help decorate for our New Years party… “Thanks, Lord! I love you!”
Dewey Stanford | November 28, 2007 7:38 pm
I am paasing along an opinion
editorial published in the
ORLANDO SENTINEL
OTHER VIEWS My WORD
Family, country and God
Reed Markham | Special to the Sentinel
November 22, 2007
Article tools
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Digg Del.icio.us Facebook Fark Google Newsvine Reddit Yahoo Print Single page view Reprints Post Comment Text size: It is an American tradition and a Florida tradition to spend some time during the Thanksgiving holidays reflecting on great memories of the past and working on some new ones. I would like to share some thoughts on what I’m thankful for.
John Howard Payne penned the following words in his opera, Clari, The Maid of Milan: “Home, home, sweet, sweet home. Be it ever so humble, there’s no place like home.”
I am very thankful for a happy home. Families are the cornerstone of our individual lives, our communities and our nation. I am grateful for countless family memories. One of life’s greatest gifts is a loving family.
I am grateful for the wonderful men and women who are serving our country throughout the world. In our busy lives it is easy to take for granted the many freedoms we enjoy. A veteran of the war in Iraq described to me some of the difficult challenges he faced in fighting many battles in Baghdad. I was impressed by his desire to serve our country in the face of injury and possible death. I am thankful especially for the almost 4,000 soldiers who have given their lives to preserve our freedom.
I am grateful for a God who watches over us all. George Washington advised those who drafted the Constitution to seek the help of God. Our Founding Fathers were grateful for the divine help received in establishing our democracy.
More than four decades ago, NASA astronaut Gordon Cooper offered the first prayer in space while orbiting the Earth. Cooper offered this prayer of thanks: “Father, thank you, especially for letting me fly this flight. Thank you for the privilege of being able to be in this position; to be up in this wondrous place, seeing all those many startling, wonderful things that You have created. We are thankful for blessings we cannot measure, for gifts we cannot appraise, for books, music, art, and the great inventions which make these blessings available . . . for the laughter of little children . . . for the means of relieving human suffering and increasing the enjoyment of life . . .for everything good and uplifting.”
I am grateful for family, country and God.
During this Thanksgiving season let’s focus on those things that make us grateful.
Reed Markham lives in DeLand. He’s a former speechwriter for the U.S. Supreme Court.
Marta Castro | November 23, 2007 2:05 am
This is my favorite holiday. I love to pray to Saint Patrick
Sarah | November 21, 2007 9:44 pm
Thanksgiving is also one of my favorite holidays! At our family’s table we all go around and share what we have been most thankful for. We also take a special time to pray and praise the Lord for all He’s blessed us with, especially for this great day to slow down and appreciate the love of family and God. Thanks for the great story!
Jeaneen | November 21, 2007 12:44 pm
I started a tradition a few years ago of giving each guest at our table a thorny stem (see story below) and asking them to share a “thorn” in their life that they are thankful for. My daughter is continuing this tradition and just emailed me to ask me to share my “thorn” this year that I am thankful. It’s easy to thank God for the roses, sometimes harder to thank Him for the thorns.
THE THANKSGIVING “SPECIAL” BOUQUET
Sandra felt as low as the heels of her Birkenstocks as she pushed
against a November gust and the florist shop door. Her life had been
easy, like spring breeze. Then in the fourth month of her second
pregnancy, a minor automobile accident stole her ease.
During this Thanksgiving week she would have delivered a son. She
grieved over her loss. As if that weren’t enough, her husband’s
company threatened a transfer. Then her sister, whose holiday visit
she coveted, called saying she could not come. What’s worse,
Sandra’s friend infuriated her by suggesting her grief was a
God-given path to maturity that would allow her to empathize with
others who suffer.
“She has no idea what I’m feeling,” thought Sandra with a shudder.
Thanksgiving? Thankful for what? She wondered. For a careless driver
whose truck was hardly scratched when he rear-ended her? For an air
bag that saved her life but took that of her child?
“Good afternoon, may I help you?” The shop clerk’s approach startled
her.
“I….I need an arrangement,” stammered Sandra.
“For Thanksgiving? Do you want beautiful but ordinary, or would you
like to challenge the day with a customer favorite I call the
Thanksgiving “Special?” asked the shop clerk. “I’m convinced that
flowers tell stories,” she continued. “Are you looking for something
that conveys ‘gratitude’ this Thanksgiving?”
“Not exactly!” Sandra blurted out. “In the last five months,
everything that could go wrong has gone wrong.”
Sandra regretted her outburst, and was surprised when the shop clerk
said, “I have the perfect arrangement for you.”
Then the door’s small bell rang, and the shop clerk said, “Hi,
Barbara…let me get your order.”
She politely excused herself and walked toward a small workroom,
then quickly reappeared, carrying an arrangement of greenery, bows,
and long-stemmed thorny roses; Except the ends of the rose stems
were neatly snipped: there were no flowers.
“Want this in a box?” asked the clerk.
Sandra watched for the customer’s response. Was this a joke? Who
would want rose stems with no flowers! She waited for laughter, but
neither woman laughed.
“Yes, please,” Barbara replied with an appreciative smile. “You’d
think after three years of getting the special, I wouldn’t be so
moved by its significance, but I can feel it right here, all over
again,” she said as she gently tapped her chest.
“Uh,” stammered Sandra, “that lady just left with, uh….she just
left with no flowers!”
“Right, said the clerk, “I cut off the flowers. That’s the Special.
I call it the Thanksgiving Thorns Bouquet.”
“Oh, come on, you can’t tell me someone is willing to pay for that!”
exclaimed Sandra.
“Barbara came into the shop three years ago feeling much like you
feel today,” explained the clerk. “She thought she had very little
to be thankful for. She had lost her father to cancer, the family
business was failing, her son was into drugs, and she was facing
major surgery.”
“That same year I had lost my husband,” continued the clerk, “and
for the first time in my life, had just spent the holidays alone. I
had no children, no husband, no family nearby, and too great a debt
to allow any travel.”
“So what did you do?” asked Sandra.
“I learned to be thankful for thorns,” answered the clerk quietly.
“I’ve always thanked God for good things in life and never to ask
Him why those good things happened to me, but when bad stuff hit,
did I ever ask! It took time for me to learn that dark times are
important. I have always enjoyed the ‘flowers’ of life, but it took
thorns to show me the beauty of God’s comfort. You know, the Bible
says that God comforts us when we’re afflicted, and from His
consolation we learn to comfort others.”
Sandra sucked in her breath as she thought about the very thing her
friend had tried to tell her. “I guess the truth is I don’t want
comfort. I’ve lost a baby and I’m angry with God.”
Just then someone else walked in the shop.
“Hey, Phil!” shouted the clerk to the balding, rotund man.
“My wife sent me in to get our usual Thanksgiving
arrangement…twelve thorny, long-stemmed stems,” laughed Phil as
the clerk handed him a tissue-wrapped arrangement from the
refrigerator.
“Those are for your wife?” asked Sandra incredulously. “Do you mind
me asking why she wants something that looks like that?”
“No…I’m glad you asked,” Phil replied. “Four years ago my wife and
I nearly divorced. After forty years, we were in a real mess, but
with the Lord’s grace and guidance, we slogged through problem after
problem. He rescued our marriage. Jenny here (the clerk) told me she
kept a vase of rose stems to remind her of what she learned from
“thorny” times, and that was good enough for me. I took home some of
those stems. My wife and I decided to label each one for a specific
“problem” and give thanks for what that problem taught us.”
As Phil paid the clerk, he said to Sandra, “I highly recommend the
Special.”
I don’t know if I can be thankful for the thorns in my life,” Sandra
said to the clerk. “It’s all too…fresh.”
“Well,” the clerk replied carefully, “my experience has shown me
that thorns make roses more precious. We treasure God’s providential
care more during trouble than at any other time. Remember, it was a
crown of thorns that Jesus wore so we might know His love. Don’t
resent the thorns.”
Tears rolled down Sandra’s cheeks. For the first time since the
accident, she loosened her grip on resentment.
“I’ll take those twelve long-stemmed thorns, please,” she managed to
choke out.
“I hoped you would,” said the clerk gently. “I’ll have them ready in
a minute.”
“Thank you. What do I owe you?” Sarah asked.
“Nothing; nothing but a promise to allow God to heal your heart. The
first year’s arrangement is always on me.” The clerk smiled and
handed a card to Sandra. “I’ll attach this card to your arrangement,
but maybe you would like to read it first.”
It read:
“My God, I have never thanked You for my thorns. I have thanked You
a thousand times for my roses, but never once for my thorns. Teach
me the glory of the life I bear; teach me the value of my thorns.
Show me that I have climbed closer to You along the path of pain.
Show me that, through my tears, the colors of Your rainbow look much
more brilliant.”
Praise Him for your roses, thank him for your thorns.
— *Author Unknown —
Joy | November 21, 2007 12:21 am
Yeah, Thanksgiving is my favorite as well. It’s a lot less pressure than Christmas. Some how sitting around the table and talking over a nice meal with my family was a much treasured time. Plus, i think the tryptophane in the turkey had a very calming affect as well.
K | November 19, 2007 10:56 pm
I do not remember my family ever saying a prayer at Thanksgiving. We always recognized those who were no longer at our table and what we were most grateful for over the past year. It is my favorite holiday.