Thanksgiving is a day to sit back and be grateful with family and friends—a day to love, to pray, and to feast. So in between your mouthfuls of mashed potatoes and turkey, here are some topics (courtesy of BYU devotionals) to talk about around the dinner table.
1. Reasons for Gratitude
“The longer we live, the more we realize the blessings that lie in everyday living. Just a few—the marvel of good health, the dearness of home and loved ones, the little treasures that money cannot buy, the wonder of the world of nature, freedom under God, and the bounty which we enjoy in this good land. Thanksgiving is a time to celebrate these and many other blessings. It is a way of life. Let us be thankful that there still is sunshine, that we still can glimpse the blue of the sky and, in our onward way, continue to look up.”
—Harold Hansen, “Observing Thanksgiving Day,” 25 November 1975
2. Thanksgiving Activities
“In the filled stadium with the excitement of the band, the cheerleaders, and the crowd, a player can have all the desire or will to win in the world, but it will be for naught if he hasn’t prepared. The same is true in our personal lives. We can have the desire to do something well, even to gain a strong testimony of the gospel, but it will be for naught if we are not willing to work, study, and prepare. Every one of us has the potential to successfully achieve our goals in life, but most goals won’t be realized without effort on our part.”
—LaVell Edwards, “Take Upon Yourself the Whole Armor of God,” 10 April 2001
3. Family
“The greatest blessings that the Lord has designed for his children will be received in a family relationship. It is part of the plan of salvation that we would come to this earth, we would have earthly parents, and each of us would have a body of flesh and bones.”
—Hartman Rector Jr., “Roots and Branches,” 10 February 1981
4. History of Thanksgiving
“Now, did they have the spirit of thanksgiving when they found themselves here in this land where they could start all over again? Let me just read you a few words: ‘They had landed at last on a frozen shore, bleak and dread. But they were so glad that as they knelt in prayer the very stones seemed warm and the snowflakes on their cheeks melted into tears of gratitude.’ Did they not have the spirit of thanksgiving when they landed here in America? The account then says, ‘Oh call it holy ground, the soil where first they stood. They have left unstained what there they found, freedom to worship God.’ That is what they have bequeathed to us, and I think Thanksgiving is a good time to recall what they did to open the way for this great nation to come forth.”
—LeGrand Richards, “Thanksgiving,” 18 November 1980