At our home it will be neither. We will congregate, three generations around a table laden with a non-elaborate meal, yet including the foods that are important to keep family traditions. We will not just give thanks to some remote god, but we will pray to the God of the Universe, the one who sustains us and keeps us, not just for the food but for our blessings too great to be numbered.
Too often we thank God with a rote voice. I challenge you this day to stop, not before a table laden with food and hungry stomachs, but to find a quiet place, take a walk, or while volunteering to clean up the kitchen to meditate on the blessings that God has bestowed upon you. Whether you are a true believer in God or not, you are given the life you have by Him. We are told in Scripture that all men deep in their souls know this whether they believe it or not. And that too, is of God, but regardless we all owe him our thankfulness, not just this day but every day.
We need to put aside our discontentment, our selfishness and be thankful. Some of us have worries about the future, some of us have financial woes, and some of us are blessed with health and prosperity. We are told to be thankful in all things. That is the greatest gift we can practice with each other at the start of this holiday season.
Speaking thankfulness to God helps us in turn speak it to our spouses, our children, our parents and to those we bump into at the store.