Dear Friends,

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving, and a proper time to reflect on all the blessings we enjoy as Americans and Idahoans.  Even amidst challenges and struggles, there are always reasons to be grateful.  I hope that as we gather with our family and friends around the table tomorrow, we keep those reasons in the front of our minds.  It’s a wonderful opportunity to share our appreciation with those close to us.

There are always the seasonal admonishments that, when gathering with friends and family, we should avoid conversations of religion and politics.  Those can be passionate and divisive topics, especially as we emerge from a hard-fought election.  But to ignore such topics, even amongst those we love, we are cheating ourselves out of the opportunity to listen and to thoughtfully communicate with kindness and respect.

Let us remember the words Thomas Jefferson wrote, “I never considered a difference of opinion in politics, in religion, in philosophy, as cause for withdrawing from a friend.”  For whatever differences we all may have in such matters, there are always more things that we have in common, even when it doesn’t feel like it.  Sometimes finding those commonalities takes a little effort, but things that take effort are often the most rewarding and memorable.

By the time of our nation’s first Thanksgiving, the Pilgrims of Plymouth Colony had made seven times more graves than huts.  Gratitude in the autumn of 1621 may have been as simple as living to see another day.  Of the 102 passengers that made the journey on the Mayflower, only 53 were still alive after starvation and disease took a brutal toll.   Still, these early settlers managed to set aside a day of thanksgiving and gathered in fellowship with their new neighbors of the Wampanoag tribe.  No doubt there were differences and tension around that first Thanksgiving table too, but a grateful heart can overcome a multitude of challenges.

Thanksgiving is so more than just a meal.  It is a mindset for daily living; a way to confront the challenges of life each day with courage, sincere gratitude, and the humility of living in a state and nation so richly blessed by God.  Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life and is the cornerstone of all other virtues.  The absence of gratitude is often the foundation of most of society’s ills and vices.

The blessing of talking with friends and family around the dinner table should not be taken for granted.  We remember those whose family members are serving in our Armed Forces and deployed far from home, or first responders working on holidays and away from a warm meal and the comfort of their families.  Please keep them all in your prayers and allow their sacrifices and service to remind us of our own blessings.

I wish you all a wonderful Thanksgiving.  May your tables and hearts be full, may the conversation be as rich as the food, and may love bind you as you gather together.

Best regards,

 

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