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Guest Blog by Margaret McSweeney
Each Thanksgiving, my father would leave five kernels of corn by our plates. The backdrop for this family gathering was always a formal, Southern celebration held in the dining room with the Royal Copenhagen china and silver. The week before the festivities, I would sit in the kitchen and help my parents polish each silver fork, knife and spoon until they sparkled. My dad would whistle as he prepared the homemade cornbread in my grandmother’s cast iron griddle for the dressing while my mother baked the pecan pie and basted the turkey.
After each Thanksgiving dinner, my dad would tell us the story of the Pilgrims and how they faced starvation during that first winter. Each Pilgrim was allotted only five kernels of corn for a daily sustenance. As a very young girl, I confess that I enjoyed flicking these kernels of corn towards my brothers’ plates. But as I got older, I better understood the solemnity of this tradition. Each of us would take turns lifting the kernels by our plate and counting aloud five blessings – somehow these five kernels became three kernels as the years passed. Perhaps with two sons and a squirming daughter, my parents decided to shorten this tradition to keep our attention. However, this tangible act of giving thanks and counting our blessings was a lesson from childhood that I still remember.
Even today, this is special family tradition that I keep in an effort to remind my daughters to count their blessings, too. For simplicity sake, I use three “unpopped” popcorn kernels or frozen corn. I don’t always get around to polishing the silver, but I do try to make Thanksgiving dinner a time of remembrance and gratitude to God for all that He has done. Perhaps you can add this special touch of thanks at your table, too. Let me know how it goes.
Happy Thanksgiving!
I guess my blessings are that I have all I need. Food each meal, water to drink, a roof over my head, a car to drive, people that love me, etc. I had never known that about the Pilgrims. It really makes me grateful for each bite I have this Thanksgiving. gasweetheart211[at]netscape[dot]net
My blessings include: salvation, my husband, my children, plenty to eat, clothes to wear, our house, cars, my husband’s job… this list could really go on and on.
My children are in love with God and speak of Him freely and often. Their unabashed adoration is a blessing to me.
My blessings include my children who love God, my family and friends who love us, and God who loved me enough to send his Son for my sins. I am so grateful!
The blessing of pondering the traditional holiday of Thanksgiving where we look upon mistakes made by and overcome by our Pilgrim Forefathers, and how God, through His sustaining power, granted them temporal salvation in a new land we now call home.
The blessing of blogs like this, which encourage others to be thankful, not to the Indians, the Pilgrims, the kernels of corn, but to the One True God from whom ALL blessings flow.
The blessings of the Word of God, the power behind the Words, and the Savior whose Word is Magnified above His Name, which should make us ever thankful for the Strength we gather from reading that precious Word.
What a sweet memory! My blessing this year is being able to cook Thankgiving dinner with my 81-year old mother. She is losing her sight and we worked together to make the recipes that she cherishes and that I hope to pass along to my children.
Sharon
sharonc76308@Yahoo.com