I recently started a ministry to widows at my church. As I was preparing for my meeting during this Thanksgiving, I came across a wonderful story from history I never knew. Many of us have heard President Lincoln’s Thanksgiving Proclamation, issued on October 3, 1863. It came up last week a couple times, so I thought it would be nice to share it as a reminder with my widows.
As I did my research, I came across this wonderful story of Sarah Josepha Hale. I made a little video on this for my group, and decided this is such an important piece of history, I would like to share it here as well.
Sarah Josepha Hale was born on October 24, 1788, on a modest farm in Newport, New Hampshire. Raised in a home where her mother taught her from the Bible and classic literature, Sarah grew up with a deep love for learning, faith, and family.
In 1813 she married David Hale, a promising young lawyer. They enjoyed nine happy years and five children together—until one week before their fifth child was born in 1822, David suddenly died of a stroke. At age 34, Sarah found herself a widow in black, left to raise and provide for her young family alone.
With no inheritance and few options, she turned her pen into provision. She published a bestselling novel (Northwood). Then in 1827 she became the first female editor of a major American magazine, Ladies’ Magazine (later Godey’s Lady’s Book). Sarah published a book of children’s poems which included a little poem we know as Mary Had a Little Lamb about the same time.
For forty years she shaped American culture, championing women’s education, property rights, and the completion of Bunker Hill Monument. She esteemed women working at home as she devoted many articles to homemaking, and coined the term “domestic science.” As daughter of a Revolutionary War officer, she prized love of country and cultivated a distinctly American culture through the magazine’s short stories and articles.
Her deepest passion was uniting a divided nation around gratitude and family. Beginning in 1846, while still wearing mourning black for David, Sarah began writing annual editorials and personal letters to presidents, governors, and influential leaders, pleading for a fixed national day of Thanksgiving. Year after year she was ignored or politely refused.
Then came the Civil War. In 1863, with the country literally torn in half, Sarah wrote directly to President Abraham Lincoln. She urged him a shared Thanksgiving could help “heal the wounds of the nation” and remind both North and South they were still one people under God.
On October 3, 1863, President Lincoln issued the proclamation that established Thanksgiving as a permanent national holiday on the last Thursday of November—exactly what Sarah prayed and worked for over seventeen long years.
Sarah never remarried. She wore black the rest of her life in honor of David, yet she used her widowhood as a platform to bless millions. She died in 1879 at age 90, having lived to see her vision become reality. Quoting the infamous Paul Harvey, “and now you know the rest of the story.”
Every time we gather with family or friends this Thanksgiving, we are living inside the answered prayer of a grieving widow who refused to let sorrow silence her voice. Sarah Josepha Hale proves God can take a broken heart, fill it with gratitude, and use it to bind a nation together.
What a wonderful role model Sarah is. Becoming a widow at such a very young age, impoverished and leaning into the faith her mother instilled, she anchored herself to her loving Father God and determined to go and fulfill the plans and purposes God created her to accomplish. She had five small children depending on her. She took the gifts and graces God gave her and built a legacy that not only inspired President Lincoln to give us this important holiday we cherish with our family and friends, it is a holiday that urges each and every one of us to pause and thank our Creator for all the blessings He so richly bestows.
As you sit down to give thanks this year, may your heart continue to heal as you too acknowledge the blessings God is pouring out on you, even in widowhood. We recognize we can’t get through this life alone, but only in embracing God’s love and direction. We are here for a purpose. God has a plan for each of us.
Let’s Pray
On this Thanksgiving Day, we come before You, Abba, with tender and full hearts. Thank You for seeing us where we are—as widows who still feel the empty chair, yet also feel Your nearness more than ever. You are our faithful defender and the God who sees every tear.
Thank You for the precious years we shared with our husbands—the laughter, the love, the ordinary days shining like gold in our memories. Thank You our memories are safe in Your keeping and one day we will laugh together again in Your presence, with no more goodbyes.
Thank You for daily bread that still appears, for strength to get out of bed, for sunrises that keep coming, and for the quiet joy that surprises us in small moments. Thank You Your goodness does not change, even when everything else has.
Lord, on this day as we gather around our tables, hold the ones who feel the ache most deeply. Fill every empty place with Your presence. Turn our mourning into quiet gratitude and our gratitude into strength. Help us taste and see that You are good.
We release “if only” into Your hands and receive the gift of today. We choose to give thanks—not because the pain is gone, but because You are here, and You are enough.
Bless every widow reading this prayer. Surround her with love, wrap her in peace, and let her fall asleep tonight knowing she is deeply loved, fiercely protected, and never forgotten.
In the name of Jesus, our Redeemer and coming Bridegroom, Amen.
Support Widows This Holiday Season!
As we approach the holidays, the Hope for Widows Foundation is seeking sponsors for our annual Bring Hope Holiday Program. This initiative supports widows facing financial challenges, helping them provide gifts and essentials for their children during this special time of year.
Widows: If you are seeking support this holiday season, applications are open now through November 22 — we are here for you.
Sponsors: Want to make a difference? Become a sponsor and bring hope to a widow’s family this holiday season. Sponsor applications are open through December 12. Every contribution, big or small, helps spread joy and light.
To apply or to sign up as a sponsor, visit: https://linktr.ee/hopeforwidows
Let’s make this season brighter together!
About Teri Miner
Teri’s dance with grief actually began over five years before she watched her beloved husband of almost 37 years take his last breath and enter Heaven’s door on October 6, 2019. A terminal degenerative neurological disease steadily and increasingly attacked nearly every major system of his body and transformed him from a vibrant, brilliant, strong and caring man to a bedfast invalid at the end. She was devoted to caring for him and doing her best to make the most of every minute they had left, to love him and pray for a miracle.
She thought she knew what her future held, but she had no idea. Losing him was the first time she experienced a close and personal loss. He was the love of her life. The onslaught of the pandemic with its reign of fear-mongering, forced isolation and separation entering the scene and disrupting or destroying whatever sense of “normal” that remained, just added insult to injury.
Her faith in God is the sustaining force keeping her fighting spirit to find and share hope in a bright future. Her heart’s desire is to walk beside her fellow widows toward a path of promise and healing. She wants to offer encouragement and hope so others can find the strength to take that next breath or next step. She recently started her own blog, https://widowwhispers.blogspot.com/, to share with other widows not only the struggles and hardships of widowhood, but the triumphs. Her hope is found in leaning on the Lord Jesus to enjoy a God inspired future anchored in expectation He will bring us to a fulfilling and meaningful life.