TLP 109: What Can Your Family Learn from The Pilgrims?

Try asking your kids this one. What does Dad need to sacrifice to love the family more?

What does Mom need to sacrifice? Welcome to Truth. Love.

Parents. Where we use God's Word to become intentional premeditated parents.

Here's your host, AM Brewster. Hey everyone. It's great to have you with us here today. I love

Thanksgiving and I really hate how the world seems to skip right from Halloween to Christmas. I mean, I enjoy both of those days as well.

Obviously, Christmas is my favorite, but I really love Thanksgiving and believe it's detrimental to our understanding of God and His Word for us to miss or abuse this holiday season.

Of course, my passion may also stem from the fact that my ancestors were the ones who celebrated the first Thanksgiving.

I don't know. You decide. But today I have two purposes. The first is that I want to share briefly that for which

I am thankful and I want to talk a little bit about my ancestors and the other pilgrims and give you a couple tidbits you can share with your family as you prepare for the holiday and some great lessons you can learn from them.

But more on that in a minute. I really love the new Apple podcast app and no doubt you're enjoying it as well if you're using it.

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Of course, there's so much more for which to be thankful, but I want to keep this short because I know you're busy right now. You're getting ready for Thanksgiving and all that, and I want this episode to be helpful, but not too heavy.

Okay, so how can your family benefit from the example the Pilgrims left us? Here are my thoughts.

Number one, the Pilgrims sacrificed everything to worship God. I mean, these people left their homes and families and comfort zones because there was nothing more important to them than worshiping their

God the way He outlined in His Word. What about your family? How can you take this lesson and lead your family into a closer relationship with God?

There are so many things you can do, but here are just some quick suggestions. After sharing this lesson with your kids, you can ask them the same question

I just asked you. Our God is so amazing. Is there anything in our lives keeping us from worshiping Him the way we should?

What could we change to make God's Word more important in our family? Likely, you won't find anything keeping you necessarily from worshiping

God that's as dramatic as what the Pilgrims faced, but if you're not going to church or engaging with God's Word in your home, then you're the one making it hard for your family to worship

God in a corporate setting, and it's making it hard to worship Him in a daily life setting as well.

If your children don't know the truth that He wants them to live by, how can they follow it? So, the first lesson is that we should sacrifice everything and anything that short -circuits living in the reality of God.

We need more time with Him and the body of Christ, not less. Now, number two, the

Pilgrims sacrificed everything again to stay faithful to God. You see, the Pilgrims didn't come to America so they could biblically worship

God on Sunday. They found that freedom in Holland. They left England and they went to Holland and they got that initial freedom.

The Pilgrims decided to leave Holland so they could more easily worship God on every other day of the week.

You see, the culture in Holland was very similar to ours in that there was much temptation. I don't want to belabor this point, but the

Pilgrims left Holland because they realized it would be more difficult to worship God by living a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way, if they stayed.

So again, you can ask your children, what things are there in our family's life that make it hard for us to stay true to the

Lord? What things would it be a good idea for us to remove from our lives because they distract us from God or because they lie to us about God?

Now, likely, if your children are young, the list they come up with will be short or nonexistent. That doesn't mean you don't ask them, though.

They need to learn to think like this. However, our older children likely have many influences in their lives that need to be re -evaluated.

The Pilgrims chose a grim and difficult course simply because their main mission in life was to know

God and grow in their relationship with Him. If that's your family's mission, what hindrances are there in your home that are keeping you from thriving in that mission?

If you say you don't know what your family's mission is, I encourage you to sign up for our parenting course, 25

Days to Becoming a Premeditated Parent. Early on in the study, we discuss how to biblically formulate a

Christ -honoring purpose for your family. Proverbs tells us that without guidance, a people falls.

I hope you don't want that for your family. So, we need to sacrifice everything to follow

God's truth, not just on Sunday, but every day of our lives. And number three, the

Pilgrims sacrificed everything for each other. We all know about the Pilgrims' first winter.

We know that half of the population died, but did you know that there were only a few people who didn't get sick that winter? Did you know those men and women cared for everyone else?

In addition to trying to survive that winter, they did all they could to help others survive as well. I'm sad to say that too many families are not on the same team.

They may all live under the same roof, but they have their own plans and their own gods. Try asking your kids this one.

What does Dad need to sacrifice to love the family more? What does Mom need to sacrifice? What do the brothers and sisters need to sacrifice in order to be what the family needs and do what the family needs?

No doubt this question will spur a lot of valuable and perhaps not so valuable suggestions. Use their ideas to help them create a framework for biblical thinking.

Talk through it. Go back and forth. Why do they want what they want? If you don't know the answer to that, as a parent,

I highly suggest you listen to episode 98, entitled, Why Do Your Children Want What They Want? Listen, the

Pilgrims weren't perfect. They made many bad choices. They were sinners, but they set a positive example by being willing to sacrifice everything to love

God and love others. I think those lessons will be good for my family, and I think they'll be good for yours.

If you click on the episode notes link in the description, you'll get a bunch of conversation prompts to help utilize these lessons with your family this

Thanksgiving season. I hope those are a blessing to you. And please do not miss our next episode, Parenting is

More Than a Formula. Dr. Jim Neuheiser will be on the show, and you won't want to miss it. We can so easily become overwhelmed and even depressed by our parenting responsibility, but when we look at it biblically, we realize where the pressure genuinely lies.

And if you're looking for more Thanksgiving ideas, please listen to, For What Should Your Family Be Thankful? It's a short four -minute episode from our pilot season that outlines one of the greatest blessings we too often take for granted.

All you have to do is scroll down and click, For What Should Your Family Be Thankful? Happy Thanksgiving! Truth. Love.

Parents. is part of the Evermind Ministries family and is dedicated to helping you become an intentional premeditated parent.

Join us next time as we search God's Word for the truth your family needs today.