Why Thanksgiving Is My Favorite Holiday

Thanksgiving has always been my favorite holiday.

Sure, there’s the common favorite, Christmas.

And of course you’ve got your birthday.

But Thanksgiving has always been my favorite of favorite holidays, for one simple reason.

The entire purpose of the holiday is to Give Thanks.

History shows that it was the great Abraham Lincoln, 16th President of the United States – yes, the same man who moves me to tears every time I visit his memorial – who in 1863 issued the proclamation “to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens.”

But history also shows that the person who most influenced Lincoln to issue his proclamation was the respected author and editor Sarah Josepha Hale, nicknamed “the mother of Thanksgiving.”

(Naturally, it was a woman who thought of this most excellent of ideas.)

This holiday was born from the simple human desire to Give Thanks.

That’s why today I will…

Give Thanks for what I have.

Give Thanks for what I’ve been through.

Give Thanks for the people who love me and who I love.

Give Thanks for the food I get to eat and the clean water I get to drink.

Give Thanks for the fact that I get to do what I was born to do and get paid to do it.

Give Thanks for the fact that I have a mind that can think, a body that can move, and a soul that can feel.

Oh, and while I’m at it…

I’ll decide to Give Thanks for those things, and more, every day that I’m alive.

What will you Give Thanks for today?

Post your list here or on our Facebook page www.facebook.com/noahstjohnpage

Babette and I will read your Thanksgiving lists and be thankful right along with you.

Noah’s Note: Gratitude is the single emotion that conquers pain. The more you Give Thanks, the more you’ll have to be thankful for.

I believe in you!