Stick a fork in us?

As with most families we gathered at Mom's for the Thanksgiving feast. My sister, brother and his girlfriend, two of my three kids, Mom, Dad and I sat at a table filled with the wonders of a traditional Thanksgiving meal. One of the tradition started somewhere in our past is the blessing given for this once yearly feast is given by a different family member each year. My sister two years prior then my brother last year and in proper rotation it was my privilege this year. Usually the prayers consisted of the usual things to be thankful for, family friends, and health and with a quick mention of the food on the table Amen would be said and the feast would begin but this year would be a little different and so I began to pray.

Dear Lord thank you for again letting our family come together to give you thanks for all you have given to us. Thank you Lord for the wonderful world that you have bestowed upon us. Thank you for the great, and vast oceans so blue. Thank you for all the creatures who live within it's life giving waters.

Thank you. oh Lord, for the mountains majesty and the amber waves of grains throughout the great plains and Lord thank you for the wonderful variety of life we find on this amazing blue ball we call earth.

Dear Lord we thank you for all that you have given to us and we give praise to thee as we seek thou guidance as we strive to do your will.

Lord and God, father of all, we thank thee for all of this but Lord we thank you most for government. Lord we thank thee for bestowing on us, through the founding fathers, a great and benevolent government for and by the people.  A government that secures the rights given to us by you lord, promising never to infringe on those rights. Through your blessings on this government, in the Constitution, we have been blessed with a wonderful bounty and the Horn of Plenty.

We thank thee Lord for a government that cares so much for us in our times of need. From hunger and homelessness, to earthquakes, floods, tornadoes and hurricanes it is government that we turn to as your gracious surrogate and we thank you for their compassion for their fellow men.

Lord we give thanks today for the moral guidance you have given to our government and those we elected. It is only through government that our great civil society has grown to care for all our needs as you would have us do unto others.  Lord we thank you for a government that requires everybody to share the rewards of a free civil society with the less fortunate among us. We as a majority have decided this to be your will and will spare no expense as your will shall be done.  Thank you for a government that punishes those who refuse to support the government's noble cause.

Thank you, Creator of Heaven and Earth, for government that without which the world would plummet into the bowels of Hell.

We thank you for government without which roaming gangs would rape, rob, and pillage the country, murder would abound and Anarchy would reign.

Thank you Lord for government laws, rules and regulations provided us in order to clarify those Ten Commandments which Moses brought down from the mountain so long ago.

We also thank you, Lord for the stern hand of discipline used by government upon your people much as a parent with a child.

We understand that it is through government that we as individuals come together for the greater good of all mankind.

Thank you for our justice system which swiftly punishes those who would not conform to the moral guidance of our government inspired by your word.

Thank you for the FDA for assuring that the food on this table is safe and the drugs we use are not harmful to us save the side effects.

Thank you for the EPA without which we would surely over whelm mother earth with pollution.

Thank you, Lord for Homeland Security, FEMA, ATF, FBI, CIA, DOD, HUD, EDA, FHA, And the hundreds of other government agencies that look after our every need and want.

Thank you for the Federal Reserve without which we would not be able to have a stable economic environment.

We thank you, Lord, for inspiring a living, breathing, and ever changing Constitution which to set our moral compass.

We thank you for granting the moral authority to our government to spread democracy around the world and increase our empire by the use of coercion and force.

Thank you God for giving forgiveness for the loss of innocent lives as we seek to spread our goodness around the globe.

Thank you Lord for all the bridges, roads,schools, airplanes, trains, boats,and all the things we would not have if not for government.

Lord we ask that you help guide those in government as they seek a new world order and one world government. We ask that you guide our leaders to do what is best for the greater good of all over the needs of the individual.

We understand,dear Lord, that it is only through our government's benevolent compassion and constant protection that we are to survive and thrive.

Lord, we have so much to be thankful for on this day I find them far to many to list and so I shall end this prayer with this, Thank you for everything government.

From sea to shining sea, from the mountains purple majesty, from the thousand outposts around the world, from the welfare checks to social security, from indefinite detention to the War on Drugs, Lord, we thank thee for government.  From safety checkpoints to bank bailouts we thank thee for government.

We ask that you look after and protect our government from all those who speak against her and those who wish to change or abolish it.

May God bless this food and the government that assured that it is safe for us to eat, Amen.

The silence was golden as my prayer sunk in and everyone at the table realized what I had long ago realized: we have substituted government for God in our lives.

What were you thankful to government for this Thanksgiving?