Who deserves your Deepest Gratitude and Highest Thanks?

At the beginning of this Thanksgiving Week (as observed in the United States), I began the Gratitude Adventure—a series of 7 articles crafted to help you with gratitude reflection. In this article, Who Deserves your Deepest Gratitude and Highest Thanks, I will explore a fundamental question about expressing gratitude.

There are moments when our hearts are filled with profound gratitude, and we sense a need to express this gratitude. Whereas gratitude starts as an internal cognition and emotion, it is not meant to end merely as a feeling trapped in our hearts. Gratitude ought to be expressed and needs to be expressed! In the proper expression of gratitude lies the completion of gratitude. This foundational truth about expressing gratitude has significant implications and raises an important question. A profound thinker once asked, “I wish to be a more thankful person, but to whom should I give my thanks?”. In this article, I will go back to history lane to explore the Thanksgiving proclamation of past Presidents of the United States and what they thought about gratitude.

Among the nations of the world, one nation that has deeply embedded thanksgiving as part of its national life and cultural heritage is the United States. Thanksgiving is America’s oldest tradition. It is instructive to read what the past leaders of this great nation have said about the subject of thanksgiving. I believe we can glean wisdom from them.

George Washington

On October 3, 1789, the first president of the nation, George Washington, issued the first thanksgiving proclamation with the following thoughtful words:?“Now therefore I do recommend and assign Thursday the 26th 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.”

Abraham Lincoln

In the thanksgiving proclamation signed by President Abraham Lincoln on October 3, 1863, after a careful recognition and listing of the many great blessings the nation enjoyed despite a ravaging civil war, these profound words follow: “No human counsel hath devised, nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy … 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.”

Calvin Coolidge

In the thanksgiving proclamation of October 26, 1925, President Calvin Coolidge said: “As we have grown and prospered in material things, so also should we progress in moral and spiritual things … We should bow in gratitude to God for his many favors.”

Bill Clinton

In more modern times, President Bill Clinton had this to say in his November 11, 1996, thanksgiving proclamation: “Let us now, this Thanksgiving Day, reawaken ourselves and our neighbors and our communities to the genius of our founders in daring to build the world’s first constitutional democracy on the foundation of trust and thanks to God. Out of our right and proper rejoicing on Thanksgiving Day, let us give our own thanks to God …”

FOUNDATIONAL LESSONS ABOUT EXPRESSING GRATITUDE

As a curious mind, you may ask, what is the key point? What is the lesson from these Thanksgiving declarations? We can glean the following lessons from what these Presidents said about Thanksgiving and their thoughts about gratitude. Among several lessons, a few stand out:

1. We need to put God front and center in our practice of gratitude. It is from the depth of our gratitude toward God that we will pull to express genuine gratitude toward people around us. Our vertical gratitude (gratitude towards God) fuels our horizontal gratitude (gratitude towards people).
2. Gratitude demands that we recognize and acknowledge a divine source outside of ourselves—God. In George Washington's words, "that great and glorious Being, who is the beneficent author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be."
3. When we rightly direct our gratitude towards God, it keeps us humble amidst great accomplishments and successes. In Abraham Lincoln's words, it helps us remember, "No human counsel hath devised, nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God"

Take a moment to reflect on these words! I call this gratitude 101 because it answers a fundamental gratitude question that should not be glossed over. So Who Deserves your Deepest Gratitude and Highest Thanks? My response is God! I hope you can come to this conclusion as well.

"Whatever is good and perfect is a gift coming down to us from God our Father, who created all the lights in the heavens. He never changes or casts a shifting shadow." James 1:17, NLT

To learn more about gratitude, take a look at Uno Okon's new book?Relentless Gratitude .?Also, visit?www.relentlessgratitude.org

FURTHER READING AND REFERENCES

1. “Thanksgiving Proclamation of 1789,” George Washington’s Mount Vernon, accessed June 27, 2022, https://www.mountvernon.org/education/primary-sources-2/article/thanksgiving-proclamation-of-1789/ .

2. “Transcript for President Abraham Lincoln’s Thanksgiving Proclamation from October 3, 1863,” accessed June 27, 2022, https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/sites/default/files/docs/transcript_for_abraham_lincoln_thanksgiving_proclamation_1863.pdf

3. “Proclamation 1753—Thanksgiving, 1925,” The American Presidency Project, accessed June 27, 2022, https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/proclamation-1753-thanksgiving-1925

4. “Thanksgiving Proclamation,” 1996, https://clintonwhitehouse2.archives.gov/WH/New/html/thanksgiving.html .