I have recently incorporated a specific focus on gratitude into my daily spiritual practice. Last weekend, I felt inspired to prepare a prayer for our family Thanksgiving. In the past, I’ve usually adlibbed a few words or read someone else’s. I’ve also read George Washington’s proclamation once or twice. This isn’t the first time I’ve written a Thanksgiving prayer. But it has been years. I hope you and your family find this inspiring.
Thank you, God, for all the blessings we have.
Thank you, God, for all the blessings we are receiving.
On this day, families across our nation gather in the name of God and country to celebrate a heritage of giving thanks for the bountiful harvests and prosperity that are part of the continuing fulfillment of our ancestor’s intentions.
Generations have arrived on these shores seeking a better way of life. Through inspiration, intellect, inventiveness, and plain old-fashioned sweat and labor, they created our nation, built it up magnificently, and passed it on to their descendants. We shoulder the inherited yoke of maintaining liberty, freedom, truth, and justice in recognition of all that have toiled along the path behind us and in preparation for those who will blaze and clear the path ahead of us.
Today is a special day. Today we give thanks for the grand experiment that is the United States. We do this, not with fireworks and fanfare but through our solemn gratitude. Today we renew our obligation to ensure the continuity of our “shining beacon on the hill” so that people around the world may look to us for inspiration as they strive for freedom in their own lands. 246 years ago we set a precedent for all of the world to know that there is an ideal to strive for where every individual has agency over their lives and even more importantly, their thoughts and actions. Today we celebrate the ideas and principles codified in the blood of our ancestors who fought and died for them, and passed them forward to us. These ideas and principles help us to preserve our God-given rights, and not just fight tyranny wherever it might occur but seek to prevent it from ever taking root. The United States is not and never has been perfect but it is a civil, economic and spiritual platform where the natural human desire to strive for improvement and perfection may be exercised freely.
Since it’s birth, our country has been a thorn in the side of the established order. In the present, we find that yet again, the ideas and principles that have spurred this nation to great heights of achievement and expression are again called forth to thwart those who would seek to enslave humanity. Today, we not only give thanks for the sustenance before us but that the grand experiment that inspires this day will prevail for many, many generations to come.
Amen