Many of us will not remember the tragic events of either World Wars, or the Great Depression. Only a handful will recall the events of Vietnam, the assassination of John F. Kennedy, or the Apollo Moon Landing.
Though the vast majority of us were not here to experience first hand these extraordinary events, we still associate with them by way of distinct recitation from parents, grandparents and others.
Similar narratives concerning September 11th, the Persian Gulf War, or shuttle disasters will be used to express the lingering images in our minds to our children and grandchildren.
Other influences grasp a hold of our mental sensory, which we associate with significant events in our personal lives. Often, and rather frequently, quotes, anecdotes, thoughts and alliterations are expressed for which we assign various levels of symbolism
We identify these memorable episodes with personalized intrinsic value. Thus, enabling us to remember them, reflect upon them, and consider them to be of exceptional usefulness in the application of normative expectations to everyday life.
As we approach the time-honored holiday of Thanksgiving, our thoughts usually turn towards food, family and football. Many aspects of our society reflect on this holiday in someway. There are even hymns to which we sing of thanksgiving.
One such hymn, Prayer of Thanksgiving, is sung in numerous congregations in and around the holiday. But is it truly what it has acquiesced to be? Or rather, do we judge a book, or the song in this case, by its cover?
In the feigning moments of the Eighty Years War between Spain and what would soon become the Netherlands, troublesome adversity set in for the people of Holland. The conflict, which had begun some 58 years prior, bore down on the Dutch in 1621. For the next four years they endured countless atrocities and discouraging defeats. Amidst these perilous times, by some unknown individual, the words were ascribed to the hymn we now call “Prayer of Thanksgiving.”
Without reciting word for word the lyrics, a simple explanation should suffice.
These people had little to be thankful for as Spanish victories imperiled the Dutch and brought them to the doorstep of defeat. Yet this poetic utterance was a plea. A mournful supplication, spiritual overture to God, to release them from the adversity, which engulfed their tiny nation. Essentially, the Star Spangled Banner of the Netherlands was born.
Hence, we draw the figurative association of thankfulness to a composition of adversity.
Many years later, the United States encountered a similar situation. A nation was in the middle of being torn in half. This same nation, founded and established under Divine direction, was immersed in hatred and scarred by the workings of the devil among the children of men.
Though, amidst all of the adversity, one of the most endearing documents was penned; by one humble servant of not only his nation, but also his God. Noted by Abraham Lincoln as “the most central act” of his administration, the Emancipation Proclamation was enacted and lifted the Civil War from a mere uprising of secession, to a crusade for human freedom.
Ironically, in the same year of 1863, Lincoln officially proclaimed a national holiday, the fourth Thursday of November, a day of Thanksgiving.
In his resolution on the matter, Lincoln said,
“We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of heaven; we have been preserved these many years in peace and prosperity; we have grown in number, wealth, and power as no other Nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us, and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God who made us. It behooves us, then, to humble ourselves before the offended power, to confess our sins, and to pray for clemency and forgiveness.”
Again we find a seamless parallel in context between adversity and thankfulness.
What is to be learned? We already know to count our many blessings. But in all of our superficial ineptitude of understanding, are we to understand that we should be thankful for adversity?
The answer is a certifiable “yes.” We are also to be thankful in times of adversity. All too often our pleas of comfort and deliverance from the afflictions that bind us, are not escorted with utterances of thankfulness.
In those brief, yet seemingly long, moments of life when the cramming for a test, adds to the frustration of a dead-end job, which further increases the troubles of dating and you wonder, “why am I not married yet?”
These few illustrations added upon the regular daily routine of troubles allow us the opportunity to sink into grief and despair. Knowing that hindsight is 20-20, we are often capable of thanking the Lord after the fact, when we should be thanking him for the trials in which we are currently engaged in the struggle.
In the revelation given to Joseph Smith in the 59th section of the Doctrine and Covenants it remind us, “Thou shalt thank the Lord thy God in all things.” (D&C 59:5-7;)
In October 1982, speaking in an LDS General Conference concerning gratitude and thanksgiving, Marion G Romney barely standing due to the woes of poor health, and so blind he couldn’t even read his prepared talk, stated, “It is perfectly evident from this scripture that to thank the Lord in all things is not merely a courtesy, it is a commandment as binding upon us as any other commandment.” (Marion G. Romney, “Gratitude and Thanksgiving,” Ensign, Nov. 1982, 50)
As the upcoming political holiday of Thanksgiving approaches and we associate it with thankfulness to God, it is easy to offer gratitude for blessings which are self-evident. However, let us also remember to be thankful for those trials and tribulations given from God. Those same trials designed to make us not only better, but better Disciples of Christ.
What is to be learned? We already know to count our many blessings. But in all of our superficial ineptitude of understanding, are we to understand that we should be thankful for adversity?
The answer is a certifiable “yes.” We are also to be thankful in times of adversity. All too often our pleas of comfort and deliverance from the afflictions that bind us, are not escorted with utterances of thankfulness.
In those brief, yet seemingly long, moments of life when the cramming for a test, adds to the frustration of a dead-end job, which further increases the troubles of dating and you wonder, “why am I not married yet?”
These few illustrations added upon the regular daily routine of troubles allow us the opportunity to sink into grief and despair. Knowing that hindsight is 20-20, we are often capable of thanking the Lord after the fact, when we should be thanking him for the trials in which we are currently engaged in the struggle.
In the revelation given to Joseph Smith in the 59th section of the Doctrine and Covenants it remind us, “Thou shalt thank the Lord thy God in all things.” (D&C 59:5-7;)
In October 1982, speaking in an LDS General Conference concerning gratitude and thanksgiving, Marion G Romney barely standing due to the woes of poor health, and so blind he couldn’t even read his prepared talk, stated, “It is perfectly evident from this scripture that to thank the Lord in all things is not merely a courtesy, it is a commandment as binding upon us as any other commandment.” (Marion G. Romney, “Gratitude and Thanksgiving,” Ensign, Nov. 1982, 50)
As the upcoming political holiday of Thanksgiving approaches and we associate it with thankfulness to God, it is easy to offer gratitude for blessings which are self-evident. However, let us also remember to be thankful for those trials and tribulations given from God. Those same trials designed to make us not only better, but better Disciples of Christ.
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