Richard A. Sokerka
Today, Americans of all faiths will gather with family members at the table to celebrate a Thanksgiving feast, giving thanks to God for all they have been blessed with in their lives.
Unfortunately, as with other religious-based holidays, our secular society has tried to turn Thanksgiving Day into just a day about football games, stuffing ourselves with turkey and pumpkin pie and ingraining in our minds that the Christmas gift-buying season is in full swing with several stores open today — rather than focusing on the true meaning this day has from its humble beginnings in Plymouth, Mass.
Because Americans are so bombarded with secular holiday messages, it’s all the more reason that they should recall this religious holiday’s roots and what it means to us all these years later.
Americans would do well to focus on the small band of Pilgrims who landed at Plymouth Rock in 1620.
They wanted religious freedom so badly that they risked life and limb by putting their families on the Mayflower with the hope of building a new life in the wilderness of a new land totally unknown to them where they could worship their God and practice their faith as they wished.
The odds were certainly against them, but because they longed for the freedom to worship God, they took that risk. Halfway across the Atlantic Ocean, the Mayflower and her crew faced a near disaster as a storm caused the main beams to bow and crack. Somehow, they had the wherewithal to secure the beam and finish the journey. According to the ship’s log, at that point, “all committed themselves to the will of God and resolved to proceed.”
When they finally reached land, they found that they had veered badly off course and were not in the proximity of Virginia, where they wanted to be, but in Massachusetts, far up the coast — at that time, a “no man’s land.”
That first year took a huge toll on the Pilgrims, who survived a rugged year of weather, yet never forgot to pray and to thank God for what they had and their newfound freedom to worship him.
At harvest time, they paused to give God thanks with the Native Americans who helped them work the land for food.
The lesson to be passed on to each new generation in America from the Pilgrims is this: live our lives with an attitude of gratitude.
Like the pilgrims, let us put our faith totally in God. They were thankful for what little they had and their attitude of gratitude helped them survive in tough times.
It seems that some Americans have lost that attitude of gratitude in our day and age.
The legacy of Pilgrims is to remember what they endured to bring the gift of religious freedom to this land and to resolve to live our lives with an attitude of gratitude, thanking God for all his blessings upon us, our families and our country, most especially on this Thanksgiving Day.
It seems that some Americans have lost that attitude of gratitude.