November 28, 2019

Dear John,

We love Thanksgiving at Wisconsin Family Council and Wisconsin Family Action! In great part that's because we love expressing our gratitude first and foremost to God for His incredible blessings to us as individuals and as an organization and then to you, our faithful friends, who such a vital part of this unique work/ministry. While it's often said, it is so very true: without God's blessing and provision through you, His people, this work doesn't happen. So at the outset here, THANK YOU for being a blessing to WFA/WFC!  

As we thought about our Thanksgiving message to you this  year, we came across an article we thought needed to be shared--and we offer it to you here for your thoughtful consideration as you enjoy time with family and friends today.

"Come Thanksgiving Day each year, many of us give the nod to Pilgrims and Indians and talk of making ready for a harsh first winter in the New World.

"But for the Christian, the deepest roots of our thanksgiving go back to the Old World, way back before the Pilgrims, to a story as old as creation, with a two-millennia-old climax. It’s a story that keeps going right on into the present and gives meaning to our little lives, even when we’re a half a globe removed from history’s ground zero at a place called Golgotha.

"You could call it the true story of thanksgiving — or you could call it the Christian gospel viewed through the lens of that often undervalued virtue known as 'gratitude.' It opens up a few biblical texts we otherwise may be prone to downplay.

Here’s the true story of thanksgiving in four stages.

Created for Thanksgiving

“God created humanity for gratitude. You exist to appreciate God.

"First, God created humanity for gratitude. You exist to appreciate God. He created you to honor him by giving him thanks. Appreciating both who God is and his actions for us — in creating us and sustaining our lives — is fundamental to proper human life in God’s created world.

"As he describes in Romans 1 what’s gone wrong with the world, the apostle Paul gives us this glimpse of the place of appreciation in the created order:

"'Although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.' (Romans 1:21)

"Part of what the first man and woman were created to do was honor God by being thankful. And part of what we exist to do is honor God by being thankful — and thus the numerous biblical commands enjoining gratitude.

"Humanity was created to appreciate God. But as we’ve already seen from Romans 1, ingratitude wasn’t far away."

Continue reading The True Story of Thanksgiving by David Mathis, executive director of DesiringGod.com, to learn the remaining stages of thanksgiving HERE.

In closing, we share the poignant words of the classic Thanksgiving hymn, "For the Beauty of the Earth":

For the beauty of the earth,
For the beauty of the skies,
For the love which from our birth
Over and around us lies,
Lord of all, to thee we raise
This our grateful hymn of praise.

For the beauty of each hour
Of the day and of the night,
Hill and vale, and tree and flower,
Sun and moon and stars of light,
Lord of all, to thee we raise
This our grateful hymn of praise.

For the joy of human love,
Brother, sister, parent, child,
Friends on earth, and friends above,
Pleasures pure and undefiled,
Lord of all, to thee we raise
This our grateful hymn of praise.

For each perfect gift of thine,
To our race so freely given,
Graces human and divine,
Flowers of earth and buds of heaven,
Lord of all, to thee we raise
This our grateful hymn of praise.

For thy Church which evermore
Lifteth holy hands above,
Offering up on every shore
Her pure sacrifice of love,
Lord of all, to thee we raise
This our grateful hymn of praise.
---Folliott Pinpoint, 1864

The Board and Staff of Wisconsin Family Action and Wisconsin Family Council wish you and your family
a Thanksgiving filled with grateful hearts and abundant love, honor and appreciation for our Lord Jesus Christ and all of God's amazing blessings to us, especially as American Christians.