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Happy Thanksgiving Day November,21 2018Thank you God, for everything.
T - Today and all its blessings
H - Hope for every tomorrow
A - Answers to my prayers
N - Nurturing my faith
K - Kindness from friends
S - Serenity at the end of the day
G - Goals to pursue
I - Ideals to admire
V - Values to uphold
I - Intolerance of pettiness
N - Neighbors who are caring
G - Gifts of acceptance and love
Thanksgiving is so much more than a day in November, it is not just another date, we have been taught to remember.
Today people tend to forget, our forefathers came to be free and to worship, in God's holy name.
Thanksgiving Day is the Day of the Lord,
Prayers of thanks and special thanksgiving ceremonies are common among almost all religions. St. Paul in his epistle to Philippians says: “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:6,7
Why some people do not thank God?
• The first group, are putting God in the margin of their life, they don’t believe in the existing of God (Atheist).
• The second group, believe in the existing of God, but God is not important in their life. Some of these sometimes are mocking on God when they pray “our Father who art in heaven, stay there, we don’t have anything to do with you).
• The third group; also believe in the existing of God but they believe the importance of God in their private life. When comes to the society they feel they worship to God but in the daily life, they act differently.
• Forth group, which feels the God is their central life. These people bring God in all their daily life activities, and they praise God because He is the source of everything in their lives.
What we have to do to bring our nation back to God?
First, we have to focus on the spiritual meaning of the Thanksgiving, not in the Thanksgiving Day only but other national days like Christmas and others not to focus on the commercial part, but go back to the real meaning of the Christmas, which is the Birth of the Lord Jesus Christ. What is the most important to us as a Christian is to show ourselves good model to the people, and the people attracting the good model of the life, our families to be a good Christians, stable and caring families, our youth to be a good example to the others not to follow the world but the word of God in their church and be witnesses of God by their deeds and behavior.
The practical witness is a very important thing to show the importance of faith and spiritual life in society.
How we have to give thanks for everything”?
Thanking is a good thing when we teach kids to have something they have to say: please, and when they get it to say: thank you. In our relationship to give thanks to the one who helps you or show kindness to you. It is very important to develop this relationship.
When it’s come to give thanks to God it shows three things:
1. That we recognizing the importance of God to us, that’s why I refer to God when something good happens to me.
2. We feel that God is the source of goodness. This is a gift from God. (Not because we worked, we have a good harvest but because of the goodness of God, it is a gift from God).
3. We feel that we need help. As a human, we do our part but we need a divine help to overcome the difficulties of our lives and achieve success, and when we give thanks to God we acknowledge His presence and importance and our need to Him.
How do we give thanks in the hard times of difficulties and suffering?
It is a very challenging situation for us. The apostle says to thank God for everything. Maybe what we consider bad is good for us. For example, Joseph been innocence was falsely accused and put in prison, and to be in prison was good for him, otherwise, would not be the second person in Egypt, and save his nation in the time of famine. So sometimes, we don’t know what is good for us, that’s why we have to trust God and His wisdom. We thank God for every condition because we trust God and trust His wisdom. And we believe that God has a plan for us, and this plan is not including our life on earth but our eternity life also. St. Paul, for example, three times pleaded to be cured of his sickness but revealed to him by God that is for his good, and he accepted it with joy.
Being thankful is a protective aspect for us; all God’s commandments are a protective aspect for us. Thank giving is protective from being down and desperate.
We give thanks which usually we don’t notice.
Lord God, remind us this day
We are all pilgrims still
And may we pray to Thee
For Thy guidance and will.
Lord God, forgive us, we pray,
For our ungrateful way of living,
May we show others the reason
For this day of Thanksgiving.
Happy Thanksgiving
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The Western Archdiocese of the Syriac Orthodox Church of Antioch,
providing spiritual guidance and leadership to the Syriac Orthodox
community, is a 501 (c) (3) non-profit, tax-exempt organization
comprised of 18 churches and parishes in 17 western states. It was
established in 1952 as the Archdiocese of the Syrian Orthodox Church
encompassing the entire United States and Canada. In November 1995 by
the Holy Synod, the Western Archdiocese was formed to exclusively
serve the 17 states of the western half United States.
417 E. Fairmount Rd., Burbank, CA 91501
Tel: (818) 845-5089 Fax: (818) 953-7203
E-mail: bishopric@soc-wus.org
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