On October 3, 1863 President Abraham Lincoln signed the
document which officially designated the fourth Thursday in November as the
national day of Thanksgiving.
Following the victories at Gettysburg and more
importantly at Vicksburg, the people of Union, despite the horrific suffering
created by the Civil War, had reason to give thanks.
After Gettysburg, Robert
E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia would never again muster as large an army as
it had at Chancellorsville and Gettysburg and with the fall of Vicksburg, the Federal
army could execute the final phase of Winfield Scott’s Anaconda Plan.
Lincoln
still had to face re-election during the war, but militarily, the Confederacy
had paid too heavy a price to ever regain its military superiority.
What have we citizens
of the United States have to be grateful for during this fast approaching
Thanksgiving Day. I cannot speak for anyone other than myself. I am thankful,
in no particular order, for:
1. My
lovely wife and our family, for their love, their support, and their patience.
2. My
personal faith, and its promises, which sustain me when my life seems the
darkest.
3. The
few close friends in my life.
4. My
counselor, and my doctors whose skills and compassion have guided me along a
rather turbulent route to a better life style.
5. My
publisher and his excellent staff who had faith in my work.
6. Answered
prayers for those who needed it more than I.
7. A
free country and its Constitution and an abiding belief in a government of
laws, legally created by a legislative body.
8. Being
alive and viable, warm, and well fed.
9. The
thousands of individuals, who have touched my life, read my books, sat
patiently through my classes and have tolerated some very, very bad jokes.
10. Too
many blessings to count and the relegation of so many bad experiences to the
past, which has enabled me to emerged as a victor rather than needlessly allow
myself wallow in self-pity as a victim.
Like the
Confederate’s prayer which I recounted
in an earlier bog, “I am among all men so richly blessed.” Have a great holiday!
