Preparing for Thanksgiving Part 3 Sarah Hale

 

Preparing for Thanksgiving Part 3

 

Sarah Hale

 

 

 

 

This lady “Sarah Josepha Hale”

 

Spent 36 years preparing America

 

For a national holiday called Thanksgiving

 

What are you doing to insure your family

 

 Will give thanks on that day?

 

 

 

 

Sarah Hale

The first Thanksgiving was in November, 1621.

 

In 1817, New York became the first of several

states to officially adopt an annual Thanksgiving

holiday, the American South remained largely

unfamiliar with the tradition.

 

Sarah Josepha Hale born in 1788,

 became a school teacher in 1811.

 

This educated woman married, David Hale on

 October 23, 1813, and they had five children.

 

Sarah’s husband, David, a lawyer died

in 1822, and in perpetual mourning,

Sarah wore black for the rest of her life.

 

This young widow with five children published a

collection of poems the year after her husband died.

  

She continued to write,

 inspiring children, women and men.

 

She was a powerful influence in shaping America.

 

Her most famous poem is… “Mary had a Little Lamb”.

 

But her writing influenced American women’s

 fashion, domestic architecture and morals.

 

Sarah wrote a book, “Life North and South”, which

 opened up the minds that a slave was also our brother.

The premise of her book is just that…

 While slavery hurts and dehumanizes slaves absolutely, it also

dehumanizes the masters and retards the psychological,

moral and technological progress of their world.

 

Sarah was the advocate for a national holiday of Thanksgiving.

 

For 17 years, some say for 36 years, she

worked to make Thanksgiving a national holiday.

 

She wrote letters to five presidents, until Abraham Lincoln finally heeded

her request in 1863, at the height of the Civil War, in a proclamation

entreating all Americans to ask God to, “commend to His tender care

all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers

 in the lamentable civil strife” and to “heal the wounds of the nation.”

 

Thanks to Sarah Hale, the third Thursday in November,

 is the national holiday of Thanksgiving.

 

It is now up to you and I as to whether it will

 be a day of thanks in our families.

 

What preparations are you making to

ensure your family is giving thanks?

Scripture Reading

 

1 Timothy 2:1-7 NIV

 

1 I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers,

intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone—

 for kings and all those in authority, that we may live

peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness.

3 This is good, and pleases God our Savior,

4 who wants all men to be saved and

 to come to a knowledge of the truth.

 5 For there is one God and one mediator

 between God and men, the man Christ Jesus,

6 who gave himself as a ransom for all men —

 the testimony given in its proper time.

7 And for this purpose I was appointed

 a herald and an apostle

 

 

 

 

 

1 Timothy 4:3-5 NIV

 

3 They forbid people to marry and order

them to abstain from certain foods, which

God created to be received with thanksgiving

by those who believe and who know the truth.

4 For everything God created is good,

and nothing is to be rejected if it

 is received with thanksgiving,  because it is

 consecrated by the word of God and prayer.

 

 

 

 

 

Preparing for Thanksgiving Part 2 Remembering

 

Preparing for Thanksgiving Part 2

 

Remembering

 

 

 

 

 

It is in the memory of suffering

 

We find reason to give thanks

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Remembering

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

They were merchants, of which many of

them traded with the Native Americans.

 

In 1614, a group of Native American boys

went to greet one of the merchant ships.

 

Instead of trading, the men of the ship under the

command of Thomas Hunt, captured these young boys.

 

One of the boy’s names was

Tisquantum, better known as Squanto.

 

He was taken ashore in Spain

 where he was sold as a slave.

 

Kind monks purchased Squanto and showed

 him kindness and taught him about God.

 

After 5 years, they sent him to London where

John Slany took him in and gave him work.

 

Five years later he made arrangements

 for him to sail back home.

At last, in 1619, Squanto returned home.

 

Squanto’s dream of being united with his family

 came to a dark end because when he got there,

he found they all had died of smallpox.

 

Squanto went into the woods alone with grief and

questions of why God had lead him on this journey.

 

1620 was a year of sadness for Squanto and it was also a hard year

 for the pilgrims who sailed to America for religious freedom.

 

In the spring, Squanto who lost all his relatives

 met the Pilgrims who lost 50 out of 100 of their

loved ones on the land Squanto’s family once lived.

 

Squanto spoke English and taught the pilgrims

 how to survive off the land and worked

with Governor William Bradford in the

relationships with the Native Americans.

 

Bradford saw Squanto as God’s Joseph to the pilgrims.

 

   Years of hardship for Squanto and the Pilgrims,

 caused them to realize what they had and they

gave a celebration of thanks, November 1621.

 

Jesus said when we sit at His table,

 to eat in remembrance of Him.

 

When you sit at the table of Thanksgiving,

eat in remembrance of the Native

Americans like Squanto and the Pilgrims.

 

The first Thanksgiving truly was a miracle.

 

 

Scripture Reading

 

1 Corinthians 10:15-17 NIV

 

 16 Is not the cup of thanksgiving

for which we give thanks

a participation in the blood of Christ?

And is not the bread that we break

a participation in the body of Christ?

17 Because there is one loaf, we,

 who are many, are one body,

 for we all partake of the one loaf.

 

 

 

 

1 Corinthians 11:23-26 NIV

 

23 For I received from the Lord

what I also passed on to you:

 The Lord Jesus, on the night

 he was betrayed, took bread,

24 and when he had given thanks,

 he broke it and said,

"This is my body, which is for you;

 do this in remembrance of me." 

25 In the same way, after supper

 he took the cup, saying,

"This cup is the new covenant in my blood;

do this, whenever you drink it,

 in remembrance of me." 

26 For whenever you eat this bread

 and drink this cup, you proclaim

the Lord's death until he comes.

 

 

  

Preparing for Thanksgiving Part 1 Thanksgiving Song

 

Preparing for Thanksgiving Part 1

 

Thanksgiving Song

 

 

 

 

 

Thanksgiving is a time to make our gratitude list

 

Is your gratitude list longer than your grocery list

 

And is there a song of thanksgiving is in your heart

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanksgiving Song

 

 

The first Thanksgiving recorded

 for America took place in 1621.

 

An assortment of religious separatists set

 sail in September, 1620, seeking a new home

where they could freely practice their faith.

 

After 66 days at sea, they set anchor

 near the tip of Cape Cod and one month

 later crossed the Massachusetts Bay.

 

There they began to establish the Village of Plymouth.

 

Only half of the original Mayflower passengers

and crew survived the harsh first winter.

 

Squanto and Native American taught

the Pilgrims how to survive.

 

That fall, Governor William Bradford organized a

celebratory feast and invited Wampanoag Chief Massasoit.

 

The second Thanksgiving celebration took place

 in 1623, to mark the end of a long drought.

Governor Bradford called for a religious fast.

 

Days of fasting and thanksgiving on an annual,

or occasional, basis became common practice

in the churches of the New England settlements.

 

It wasn’t until 1789, that George Washington

issued the first Thanksgiving proclamation by

the national government of the United States.

 

Thanksgiving in America had its focus on gratitude to God.

 

It was the church that continued thanksgiving

in celebrations of feasting and fasting.

 

I found it interesting that almost all the Old

Testament scriptures using the word thanksgiving

 were talking about songs and singing of thanks.

 

The Levites were in charge of songs of thanksgiving.

 

The Levites were the priests; in Revelation 1:6

is one of the places God said

He has made us priests to serve Him.

 

As priests, one of the responsibilities we

have is preparing for celebrations…

 

Especially Thanksgiving is to bring songs of thanksgiving.

 

While making a list of all the table settings and food

you need, make a list of thanksgiving songs.

 

When you bow your head in a prayer of thanksgiving

make a simple song of thanksgiving part of that prayer.

 

 

 

 

Scripture Reading

 

Nehemiah 12:8 NIV

8 The Levites were Jeshua, Binnui, Kadmiel,

Sherebiah, Judah, and also Mattaniah,

who, together with his associates, was in

 charge of the songs of thanksgiving.

 

 

 

Nehemiah 12:24 NIV

24 And the leaders of the Levites were

Hashabiah, Sherebiah, Jeshua son of Kadmiel,

 and their associates, who stood opposite them

 to give praise and thanksgiving,

 one section responding to the other,

as prescribed by David the man of God.

 

 

 

Psalm 95:2 NIV

2 Let us come before him with thanksgiving

and extol him with music and song.