SCOUTMASTER MINUTE

What is family?

Webster states it is all the descendants of a common ancestor. It also consists of those who support and love you. It is the people you can confide in and whom you trust. It means to do our best to be honest and polite with one another and to accept each other as they are. We are family.

This Thursday we will be with family as we celebrate all that we are thankful for. There will be many who will be alone with no one to share this day with. There will also be those who will be thankful for the gift of service you provided these past two weeks by handing out fliers and collecting goods that will aid those less fortunate. Let us keep all who are in need, in our prayers this Thanksgiving.

Many people assume that the United States has celebrated Thanksgiving Day since the time of the pilgrims as a sign of thanksgiving for the harvest season. This is not exactly true. President Abraham Lincoln instituted the holiday in 1863 during the Civil War. However, he did not have the harvest in mind. He wanted Americans to celebrate the holiday as a sign of unity and thanksgiving to God.

“I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, 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”

(President Abraham Lincoln, Proclamation, October 3, 1863).

Closing Prayer:

Stir up the will of your faithful, we pray, O Lord, that striving more eagerly to bring your divine work to fruitful completion, they may receive in greater measure the healing remedies your kindness bestows. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen!