"Thursday Is Not Just Thursday. It's THANKSGIVING!!"

There's a scene in the very first "Rocky" movie where (as I recall) Adrian and Rocky were ice-skating on Thanksgiving night.  The broke and busted-up Rocky Balboa says something like "For YOU it's Thanksgiving, Adrian.  For me, it's just THURSDAY." 

And sadly, the punch-drunk pugilists' mindset reflects the mindset of MANY as Thanksgiving approaches again.  "It's just Thursday."

As Paul McCartney sang in quite another context, "It's just another day," regarding what used to be a SACRED holiday, a time of THINKING OF THANKING God in a special, concerted way for his many blessings.

And, for the most part, those who DO see the third Thursday in November as special now often consider it special because it's "Turkey Day," or a day just to watch football, or (more recently) "the beginning of Christmas." Soon, they'll have to be honest and say Thanksgiving is now the MIDDLE of The Christmas Season and the last day in their way before BLACK FRIDAY, when the floodgates open and all of America's Covetousness spills out.....sometimes trampling our fellow human beings in the process.

By nature, we fallen sinners don't LIKE to be thankful...which is why we NEED Thanksgiving to be PRESERVED for its original intent.

In sequels to the "Rocky" movie, The Rock expressed thanks to God MANY times.  One example is from "Rocky II" where Adrian, now his wife, came out of her coma. Also, he was thankful to God after their child was born and after he won the Championship Belt, and on and on and on. (I'm sure Thanksgiving Day was no longer "just Thursday" for The Italian Stallion after all of THOSE good things happened!!)

Yes, Rocky LEARNED to be thankful to God but the fact is, he should have been grateful the very night he said "it's just Thursday" to Adrian.  SEE, IT WAS HIS FIRST DATE WITH A WOMAN HE LIKED VERY MUCH, AND PROVIDENTIALLY HE HAD JUST BEEN SELECTED TO FIGHT THE WORLD CHAMPION FOR THE TITLE THOUGH HE WAS A NOBODY.  Frankly, instead of Thanksgiving being "just Thursday" to him, it should have been the greatest Thanksgiving of Rocky's life, to that point.

What's MY point?? Let us look hard to find the things WE can be thankful to God for, this Thursday...Thanksgiving Day!!  Are we alive?? Can we see and hear?? Can we get out of bed?? Are we FREE?? Do we have food to eat?? On and on and on.  In the movie, Rocky was blessed with much more BEFORE he was thankful but in real life, God doesn't usually give us more until we appreciate what we have.    We should be thankful EVERY day but let's begin this Thursday...this THANKSGIVING, if not BEFORE, even.