Thanksgiving Morning Thoughts

Thanksgiving Morning Thoughts
Matthew Q. Llewellyn, NREMT-I
Founder, The American Libertarian Movement

At the request of the newly established Congress, President George Washington wrote a proclamation titled "General Thanksgiving". In this, he not only established the official day we celebrate on, he also gave a very clear understanding of what Thanksgiving is all about. Here is that proclamation.

"Whereas it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favour; and whereas both houses of Congress have, by their joint committee, request me "to recommend to the people of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer, to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness.

Now therefore, I do recommend and assign Thursday, the twenty-sixth day of November next, to be devoted by the people of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being who is the beneficent author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be; that we may then all unite in rendering unto Him our sincere and humble thanks for His kind care and protection of the people of this country previous to their becoming a nation; for the signal and manifold mercies and the favorable interposition's of His providence in the course and conclusion of the late war; for the great degree of tranquility, union and plenty which we have since enjoyed;- for the peaceable and rational manner in which we have been enable to establish Constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national one now lately instituted;- for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed, and the means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge;- and, in general, for all the great and various favours which He has been pleased to confer upon us.

And also, that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of nations and beseech Him to pardon our nation and other transgressions;- to enable us all, whether in public or private stations, to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually; to render our national Government a blessing to all the people by constantly being a Government of wife, just, and constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed; to protect and guide all sovereigns and nations, especially such as have shewn kindness unto us; and to bless them with good governments, peace, and concord; to promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the increase of science among them and us; and, generally to grant unto all mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as He alone knows to be best.

G. Washington"

Today, as you sit around the table with family and friends, I want you to think about something else, and what it means to you. It's quite possibly the greatest thing there is to be thankful for, and often the most easily forgotten. And that thing... is freedom. I believe I'll share with you what freedom means to me.

When I think about freedom, I think about every single thing you can possibly imagine. I think about the ability to be anything you want, to go anywhere you choose and to dream the biggest dreams you can and actually be able to reach out and grab them. I remember Benjamin Franklin, who said "Every man is guaranteed the right to life, liberty and happiness, but it's up to each of them to take hold of it." Then I think of all the things that freedom allows... but only, as Franklin said, if we take hold of them.

In this great nation of ours, this, land of the free, you can choose any path you want to go down on... and believe me... the paths are many.

Many people in this great nation choose to live a less than great life. On thanksgiving, many of us give thanks for all of the blessing in our lives. Then, almost as if by nature, we offer a prayer for the less fortunate around us. I however, have to offer a question when I hear this. Are people less fortunate? Or are they lazy?

You will find, more often than not, the answer is lazy... and yes... I will explain. However, I will first say this. I understand, because I've seen it so many times, that people are sometimes forced into situations they never would have picked for themselves. Such as people with debilitating medical conditions or those who have been permanently injured by accidents. Those people are not who I speak of. Truly, let us all be thankful for the health our God has granted us, and let us ask Him to bestow healing and blessing to those without that health. That being said... Let's talk about the ones who choose to be called the less fortunate.

That's right... I went there... I said it... they choose... I'll repeat that... choose... to be less fortunate.

Some of you will probably start thinking "What a cold hearted jerk" right about now... if you are, you probably have not read a lot of my writing. Stick with me... that's all I ask. You'll love this by the time you're done reading it.

Think about what freedom is... freedom... among all the things it encompasses, is choices. That's it. No more. No less. Freedom is choice. You have the choice to succeed, you have the choice to fail. The choice is absolutely yours. The question to submit here is this; Does choosing to fail make you a failure for life? The answer is... no pun intended... your choice.

Each of us can choose many routes in life and follow many, many paths. We can choose to complete high school and never travel any further. Or, we can choose to quit all together. We can choose to go to college and get a degree. Or, we can choose to drop out and flip burgers. We can choose to drink and party, or we can choose to stay home and study. We can choose to use drugs, or we can choose to fill our minds with knowledge. We can choose to work hard for the promotion at work, or we can choose to just keep that paycheck coming in. We can choose to work two jobs and go to night school and achieve our dreams, or we can choose to live off the tax payer and not do a thing at all. We can choose to remain celibate, or at least practice safe sex until we can afford children, or we can choose to make babies faster than we can make dollars. Regardless of what we choose... at the end of the day... it's by our decisions that we arrive there... no one elses.
You have heard people say "He's just a product of a bad environment". That has to be one of the biggest loads of horse excrement I've ever heard in my life. It is impossible for us to become a product of our environment. Why? Because our environments are a product of us.

Take these stories as perfect examples.

There was a young man who went to college and began drinking heavily. Shortly thereafter, he started using drugs. An even shorter time later, he was homeless. He hated his life and everything it was about. After spending almost three years on the street, he had enough of it and tried to kill himself... and almost succeeded. Weeks later, he decided there was a better way. He sought out various paths until he found the perfect one. He used a homeless shelter to sleep and shower at night. During the day, every day, he walked 5 miles to work construction. He hammered nails until he had enough money saved to rent a very cheap and run down apartment. He continued swinging the hammer day in and day out. Eventually, he had enough money saved to return to college. During the day, he hit nails... at night... he hit the books. Many years have gone by... except now people don't call out to him and say "Hey you, bring those 4x4's over here", they say "Doctor, your next patient is ready."

There was a very young woman who was unwed, dropped out of school to take care of her three children from three different males, who found herself homeless, living in her car, and bouncing from homeless shelter to homeless shelter trying to survive. That woman was in a position that easily strikes fear into the hearts of many women. Imagine that for a minute... uneducated... homeless... three children... and no hope in sight. Well... what do you do when there is no hope in sight? You start making your own hope. This woman found a place to live and did the only thing she knew she could do that also make lots of money doing it... she became a dancer at a strip club. After saving enough money, she studied for her G.E.D., then, after securing a new place for her family, she enrolled in college. She used welfare as she needed it to help her along the way... but she's not on it anymore. Today, she is still a single mother, but she is a very successful single mother who owns a successful business. Her bills are paid, she has money to play with in the bank, she drives not one but two brand new cars, the only vehicle she'll ever live in again is the RV her family takes on road trips and her children have more toys than they could have ever imagined. She never wonders where the next check is going to come from, and she never worries about not having a way to survive. She made truly horrible decisions. She arrived at a truly unthinkable outcome. She knew she wanted more, she fought as hard as she could for more... and folks... she got it.

Both of these people survived incredibly difficult situations. They faced some of the very worst things life had to offer. In the man's case, he found himself on every drug you could imagine and almost killed himself from the pain his life gave him. In the woman's, she found herself in the same position as many women across the nation do. To escape, she chose one of the most vile, degrading and horrible paths any woman could ever go down. She sold her body. In her words "I chose the lessor of two evils."

Side note for men and women... This is a free nation... is you choose to visit a strip club, your choice. If you choose to work in one, also your choice. But let me leave you with some very wise words that were given to me as a young man. "When you walk in there, and involve yourself in this sin, sin will consume your heart and mind. You're body will leave whole, but each time you give in, a piece of your soul is left behind." Just some food for thought... moving on.

Choice my friends... choice... that's what Thanksgiving is all about. You can choose to succeed, or you can choose to fail. It doesn't matter how many bad decisions you've made in your past, in fact, it doesn't matter what bad decisions you made yesterday, or even five minutes ago. I've said this for a long time and I firmly believe it... None of us are who we were yesterday. Who we are, is what we are right now, and what we choose to become tomorrow.

As far as excuses... you can leave them at the door. In life, there are no excuses, only attempts to justify continually bad decisions. Rather than make an excuse, admit your error, learn from it, correct it and move on.

If there is one thing I know for a fact... it's this. It's never too late to start fresh. It doesn't matter if you did the wrong things before, it matters that you learn from them and choose to do the right things now.

Theodore Roosevelt said "Nothing in the world is worth having or worth doing unless it means effort, pain, difficulty... I have never in my life envied a human being who led an easy life. I have envied a great many who led difficult lives and led them well."

So what is freedom to me? Freedom to me... means no matter what you've done... you can find yourself free from your past and become anything you want to be. No one can stop you... No one can make you do it... the only person who can make this choice... is you.

And that my friends... is what Thanksgiving is truly about. Freedom and choice. Be thankful that our Almighty God has given all of us this free nation, where we can choose to become anything we want to be... no matter how big or small.

This Thanksgiving, I am thankful for many things. I'm thankful for my life, the success God has allowed me to achieve, the patience He shows me and the wisdom He places in my heart. I'm thankful for my wonderful family. We have been through some difficult times, but through God's graces, we've always come through. I'm thankful for the very special, amazing woman in my life. And last, but certainly not least, I'm thankful for my good friends, new and old.

And this Thanksgiving, I pray that you will all be thankful for your ability to choose, and the freedom that gives you that ability. I pray for everyone who needs to make those better choices and ask God to place in them the desire to overcome their past and do whatever it takes to become every single amazing thing God intends for them. I pray for the poor to seek out greater education and become wealthy. I pray for parents to set better examples for the children by working hard and overcoming life's obstacles. And I pray... that all of you... every single one of you reading this... will come to know the love of Jesus Christ like I have. Lastly... I pray that this nation, this freedom, the freedom I hold so dear to my heart, will continue to receive God's blessings and last another two centuries and beyond.

Remember... there is nothing wrong with admitting you did wrong... it's only wrong to never admit the truth and move forward. In John 8:32, Jesus said "You will know the truth, and the truth shall set you free."

Happy Thanksgiving everyone.