He complained that his brother-in-law refused to work a 40-hour week in order to qualify for free health care, food stamps, free preschool for his kids and a host of other goodies that this small-business owner works to provide. This man’s frustration was that his deadbeat brother-in-law lives better than he does with no worries.
Traditionally, Thanksgiving is a time to count our blessings and thank God for them. For the early pilgrims, these blessings were simple and few. The first thanksgiving celebrated at Plymouth was for a bountiful harvest following a year the colonists suffered great loss from hunger and disease.
In the years that followed, days of thanksgiving were solemn yet joyful occasions. Hard work was a fact of life but no guarantee that a family would have the necessities needed to survive. Our ancestors understood that they could plant and plow, but only God could make things grow.
This was a time when those with plenty willingly shared their provisions with the less fortunate, ever mindful of God’s admonition, “If you shut your ears to the cries of the poor; you, too, will cry out and not be heard.”
In the early years of our country, nothing was taken for granted, and the fittest and bravest were not ashamed to bow the knee.
Today, thankfulness has been replaced by a sense of entitlement, and the Thanksgiving holiday has become little more than an excuse to overindulge. We prepare the traditional turkey and pies. We may volunteer for a few hours to serve free meals, but this is largely to satisfy our own needs, not to meet a real need in the community.
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