Straight Talk from Steve

Thursday is Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is a time for us to reflect on the many ways that God has blessed us throughout the year.

While the year 2020 has been particularly hard on many of us due to COVID-19, the economy, and the wildfires, just to name a few, God has blessed us nevertheless.

Our Founding Fathers understood the need to return thanksgiving to God, especially when things were not going so well. For instance, during the days of the Revolutionary War when we were losing more battles than we were winning, General George Washington kept a personal prayer book, consisting of 24 pages, inside his field notebook. The prayer for Monday evening began with these words, “Most Gracious Lord God, from whom proceedeth every good and perfect gift, I offer to thy Divine Majesty my unfeigned praise and thanksgiving for all thy mercies towards me.”

The Father of our Country understood the importance of returning thanks to God especially during times of hardship. It is easy to give thanks to God when things are going well, but the truest test of our character comes in giving thanks when things are not going so well.

General Washington certainly had much to complain about. Remember the winter at Valley Forge? How about the betrayal of Benedict Arnold? Or, how about when the British General Howe out-maneuvered him at the Battle of Brandywine and marched unopposed into the nation’s capital at Philadelphia? In spite of all of these failings, Washington continued to give thanks to God, and so should we.

No matter what may be weighing you down this year, I would like to encourage you to search and find the many ways that God has blessed you this year. Once we take the time to reflect on all that God has done for us, we begin to see how blessed we really are.

We still live in a great country. May God bless America and may God bless you. Happy Thanksgiving!