Thanksgiving

A day after the holiday of Thanksgiving, let us reflect on what it should truly mean.

When first created the holiday of Thanksgiving was intended as a day to celebrate and give thanks to God for a bountiful harvest. There are many arguments regarding it's origin, but almost all of them have the attributes of giving thanks to God. What has Thanksgiving become today?

One of the main things secularization has done to the holiday is make it a day for a large celebration of false idols, a.k.a. the Macy Parade.
Unfortunately this is a large advertisement for material things and a parade of television, movie idols, and even Santa Claus himself. There is no thanks given in this march of idolatry.

Secondly it is a day of football. Millions sit in front of televisions watching the "big game". While football itself can be a worthwhile pastime activity, it removes our focus on this day from what it should be; giving thanks.

Thirdly it has become a day of gluttony. We sit at a table stuffing ourselves until we can't hold any more food. We sit around with our families shoveling food into our faces competitively, sometimes arguing over who gets the turkey leg. Did God really intend for this to become our focus? Some families still give thanks around this meal, and I'm sure they are blessed for it.

Lastly it has become the marker for the coming of Christmas, which I won't completely get into the paganism and secularization of this holiday, but I will quickly say aggressive shopping and pagan decoration is not a proper way to celebrate the birth of Jesus.

I could continue, but I hope the readers of this blog will do some research on their own so that we can remove our focus from this world and put it back on the God.