As we join together with family and friends for this Thanksgiving Day, let us remember there is more to the day than football and shopping. It represents so much more than the talking points liberals have recommended women use to direct discussion over the meal. Instead, this is a day when we should remember those brave men and women who journeyed far from home to build new lives for themselves and their families. We should remember loved ones, be they family or friends, living or not, who made our lives better. We should give thanks for those who stepped forward to answer the call to service, protecting this country and all it stands for from enemies foreign and domestic.

Put aside the politics and consider what others have said about this day.

Two hundred twenty nine years ago, President George Washington designated November 26, 1789 as the first official Thanksgiving. His words still resonate today, especially there are those doing their best to tear down the foundations of our nation.

And also that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations and beseech him to pardon our national and other transgressions—to enable us all, whether in public or private stations, to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually—to render our national government a blessing to all the people, by constantly being a Government of wise, just, and constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed—to protect and guide all Sovereigns and Nations (especially such as have shewn kindness unto us) and to bless them with good government, peace, and concord—To promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the encrease of science among them and us—and generally to grant unto all Mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as he alone knows to be best.”

In 1863, not long after the Battle of Gettysburg, President Lincoln issued his own Thanksgiving Proclamation. It was Lincoln who made Thanksgiving an official holiday, one he hoped would help heal the nation’s wounds. His words, written 155 years ago, ring as true today as they did then. Our nation is being torn apart by political rhetoric. Discontent and, at times, violence, is fomented by those who want to see the United States fall. On this day, we should remember what Lincoln said and take his words to heart.

It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and voice by the whole American people. 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. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to his tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility and Union.”

President Ronald Reagan noted in his 1987 Thanksgiving Proclamation that Thanksgiving that year fell on the bicentennial of the Constitution. What better day to remember everything, the victories and the sacrifices, that combined to make our nation great?

The cause for which we give thanks, for which so many of our citizens through the years have given their lives, has endured 200 years — a blessing to us and a light to all mankind.

On Thanksgiving Day, 1987, let us, in this unbroken chain of observance, dedicate ourselves to honor anew the Author of Liberty and to publicly acknowledge our debt to all those who have sacrificed so much in our behalf. May our gratitude always be coupled with petitions for divine guidance and protection for our nation and with ready help for our neighbors in time of need.”

As I write this, I sit in my living room. On the wall across from me hangs my great-great grandfather’s discharge from the Union Army. Next to it is a history of his service. He was one of the lucky ones. Even though wounded during the Battle of Gettysburg, he survived and made it home to his family. He lived a long life and raised his family, despite his wounds and in spite of other hardships life threw at him.

I am thankful he, like so many other men, young and old, stepped forward to help preserve the Union. I am thankful–and extremely proud–of my son who signed his papers on the anniversary of 9/11 and now serves in our nation’s military. I give thanks for every man and woman who has shouldered the responsibility of serving in our military, protecting our nation and our way of life.

I am thankful for the fact we live in a nation where we are encouraged to think and innovate.

I am thankful for our first responders and those who support them.

Most of all, I am thankful for my family and friends.

This Thanksgiving, I also pray for those who have lost loved ones or who have lost faith.

We must remember where this country came from and the foundations upon which it is built. We must turn aside the naysayers and those who wish to tear the United States down.

Today we should remember something else President Reagan said. As part of his Thanksgiving Proclamation in 1985, he stated, “Although as Americans, we have many things for which to be thankful, none is more important than our liberty.”

I am thankful for the liberty and the life it affords all of us, even when we don’t agree.

Please have a safe and happy Thanksgiving from all of us here at Victory Girls.

Featured Image: The Annual Pardoning of the Thanksgiving Turkey, 1983.