By: T F Stern | Self-Educated American

What are we celebrating this Thursday?  Are we taking a day off to be with family and friends to express gratitude to our Father in Heaven for the many blessings and tender mercies provided us; our ‘cornucopia’ of clothing to wear, a roof over our heads, food enough to survive and even share or have we altered our focus toward something else?

(Image courtesy of Wikipedia/ By Peter Paul Rubens – 6QEwQbRo8rzs5A at Google Cultural Institute maximum zoom level, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=21897457)

You got it; Black Friday and huge sales events that are begging people to forget being thankful for what they have and move onward to what they might obtain if they time it just right; taking folks away from the dinner table to their computers or out to the shopping malls.

Watching television commercials, supposedly geared to Thanksgiving Day, timed messages that instead have little if anything to do with our intent to honor God for having shed His many blessings down upon us throughout the year.  No, the trend is to eat a quick meal, making sure to be done by two o’clock in the afternoon so you can race down to the local department store where millions of others will be taking advantage of spectacular pricing on items you can’t live without.  You don’t even have to leave the house as most Internet sales promise to price match and includes free shipping.

How much money was spent on Black Friday in 2016?

“Shoppers spent $1.9 billion online on Thanksgiving Day and another $3.3 billion on Friday, according to Adobe.”

An article by Kimberly Amadeo explains part of the challenge to retail businesses.  It boils down to survival in today’s market place.

“Black Friday is November 24, 2017, the day after Thanksgiving. It’s traditionally the busiest shopping day of the year because it kicks off the holiday season. This season is crucial for the economy because around 30 percent of annual retail sales occur between Black Friday andChristmas. For some retailers, such as jewelers, it’s even higher — nearly 40 percent.”

It’s been this way for many years; but can you imagine the pressure put on retailers as they recognize that this one month, calculated from the day before Thanksgiving, determines whether or not they will be in business the next year?

Far too many have become members of the ‘Church of Black Friday’, having bowed down to their god of prosperity and once in a life time deals, their golden calf if you will.

Wouldn’t it be better to give thanks to God and take the day off with family as a way to open the door for other blessings; blessings which often include prosperity and timely help from above as each day’s challenges are somehow met successfully?

“… Choose you this day whom ye will serve…but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.