Written by Taelor Aebi
For many Americans, Thanksgiving is a day filled with food, family, and fun. All families have their traditions; whether it includes your grandmother’s famous pumpkin pie, or gathering around the TV to watch a couple of football games.
Relatives travel across the country to gather together for this special day. Grocery stores close early and most towns completely shut down in observance of one of America’s oldest holidays.
But Thanksgiving is more than just a day of eating way too much and watching football. It is also a day set aside to give thanks for the many blessings we have in our lives.
In preparation for Thanksgiving many school children make cards to send to their loved ones to show their appreciation. Some even write poems or color pictures.
Many families take a few moments before the big Thanksgiving dinner to express what they are thankful for in their lives. Then the turkey is cut, the fellowship begins, and we continue on with our lives.
But our thanks should not only be limited to one day a year. We should not only be more mindful of the blessings in our lives on Thanksgiving, but we should also take more time to be thankful everyday. As Americans, we especially have much to be thankful for.
Politics is a topic of discussion around many dinner tables on Thanksgiving. We often complain about our elected officials without taking much time to be thankful for them. Whether or not they are doing exactly what we think they should, we should take the time to be thankful for their hard work and service to our country. And we should just be thankful that we are able to vote for the officials we want to represent us, whereas many other countries do not have that opportunity.
We often hear a lot of complaining about our current economic situation. While our country may be suffering in some aspects, we are still a very blessed nation. Most Americans have a place to call home, clothes to wear, and food to eat on a daily basis.
You rarely hear of someone starving to death here. In many other countries around the world, this is not the case. Starvation is common among impoverished countries, and many others would consider a house or an apartment to be a luxury. According to blurtit.com, 99% of Americans own a television set, and more than 60% of households have more than three television sets. That’s not bad for a country that is “struggling” economically. We should take time to be thankful for the simple things we enjoy in life such as running water, clothes, food, and even multiple television sets.
We should also take more time to be thankful for the freedom we enjoy. We have the freedom to say what we want, to practice our religion, and to elect our own officials to name just a few. Thousands of troops are fighting and risking their lives in the Middle East everyday so that we can keep those freedoms. We should always remember to be thankful for them, not just once a year.
Many of us also have loving families that have been a blessing in our lives. Others have friends who have had a special role. But how much time do we spend thanking them? Sure we might occasionally send a thank you card, or mention their name at the dinner table, but we should constantly be thankful for their influence.Though Thanksgiving is over and many are already looking forward to Christmas, we should not forget the things we were thankful for on Thanksgiving. We should count our blessings daily and always remember to thank those who have provided them for us, and most importantly, we should always remember to thank the one who created them all.
