Giving Thanks

SUN., NOV. 24, 1991, 6:19 AM
FARM, STUDY

Giving thanks is an important part of human/spiritual interacting. That is… you can thank other persons for what they have done in merely a social way… and you can thank special persons for truly loving acts or those of sacrifice… and you can thank Me for myriad blessings, for each day is full of these. Mainly, then, thanks is a spiritual response, particularly if there is some sense that I am somewhat involved in that for which you are thankful.

In your culture you have a day especially set aside as one of Thanks. This goes back to the experiences of early white settlers on the northern shores of your East coast, when these men and women gave thanks to Me for a harvest that should carry them through the winter. They also included Native Americans who had taught them some ways of surviving in that harsh culture, even as these were not Christians. It was, in your historic memory, a rather simple feast, but offered in thanks for both human and divine help.

It is sad that the relations between these two groups of humans did not continue in this give and take fashion. The natives were not willing to share their land with people whose values were not like theirs, and with the white folks… it was just about the same, except they assumed they could just take the land. Ownership could finally only be with white men. I am both proud and ashamed of these early white settlers.

Positively, though, they did establish this day of Thanks, and your culture remembered it, celebrated it, and finally made it a national holiday. It is not officially Christian, but it generally is accepted that the main Thanks go to God, the ultimate giver of all good gifts.

You can be thankful for generally good health as you officially enter senior citizenry. You have some toes that don’t function fully, and a shoulder that is not fully functional and that does give you some pain. I am aware of these, and I have heard your and Lenore’s prayers for relief and healing. This must mean that there are reasons for some continuance of such disabilities, for, yes, I do have the power to restore you to perfect function. I am not against anything you do for relief or to try for full functioning, but I do not want you to focus on these minor problems. Rather, I want you to continually offer thanks for what you have, considering, ever so briefly, what could go wrong that would be much more serious and life threatening.

I want you to be thankful for the strength and capacities to do what you do around this Farm, and in your job. I want you to be thankful for his place where you live and this setting in which you work. For you these are about as perfect as they could be, and this isn’t the case with many people in this country. You have much to be thankful for in both your living and your working, and I am partly responsible for both.

I want you to be thankful for Lenore, your wife of these nearly 40 years, and for the good life you have had together. You also should be thankful for the lives of your 4 sons and their families. Peter came across to Me in his youth, but you can be thankful for the years he was with you (even the hard ones), and that he doesn’t live on in some paralyzed or comatose state. Be thankful for the abilities that your sons display and, especially, that all but Matthew are strong, evident servants of Mine, in their varying traditions. Yes, and you can be specially thankful for John Patrick and his eager acceptance of your Teachings and the relationship with Me that they represent.

I want you to be thankful for what you have materially. I want you to live quite frugally, and, in appreciation for what you have, give to your church and to other causes as generously as you can. You don’t feel rich, but you still have plenty you can share… or spend on luxuries.