November 24, 2024 — Episode #47

In a special Thanksgiving edition, Jerry and Becky trace the holiday’s roots in American history and challenge listeners to make gratitude a lasting family practice.

Becky shares a favorite childhood Thanksgiving memory of her extended family’s annual hog-butchering tradition, while Jerry recalls a snowy Thanksgiving from his own boyhood. They then walk through the history of Thanksgiving in America, from early expressions of thanks by Spanish and French explorers and the Jamestown colonists, to the Pilgrims’ voyage on the Mayflower and the Mayflower Compact, to George Washington’s first national Thanksgiving proclamation and Sarah Josepha Hale’s decades-long campaign that led President Lincoln to establish it as a national holiday during the Civil War. They reflect on how holidays can be difficult for those grieving a loss, and encourage listeners to use the table to give thanks and pray together as a family, closing with a call for national unity and gratitude.

Topics discussed:

• Family Thanksgiving traditions and memories
• Psalm 107 as a Thanksgiving psalm
• Early American Thanksgiving observances by explorers and colonists
• The Pilgrims, the Mayflower Compact, and religious freedom
• George Washington’s and Abraham Lincoln’s Thanksgiving proclamations
• Sarah Josepha Hale’s campaign for a national Thanksgiving holiday
• Coping with grief and loneliness during the holidays
• Encouraging gratitude and unity as a family and a nation

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