Today, we are enjoying the gift of fellowship and food. Just as the Pilgrims celebrated God’s abundant goodness and feasted on his riches during their first harvest, we are doing the same.

I pray your family enjoys a day of Thanksgiving.

Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving… The one who offers thanksgiving as his sacrifice glorifies me. ~Psalm 50

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Now that we have enjoyed our Mayflower and Plymouth Dinner, as well as continued adding to our Thankful Tree, we are ready for our third installment of our intentional approach to Thanksgiving.

The very first Thanksgiving dinner was not a one day celebration as we celebrate it now. It was over the course a few days, which is why we, as a family, started celebrating on Tuesday with our reminiscent dinners. As my family begins to prepare our hearts for the big feast that we will enjoy with family tomorrow, we want to take a day to fast and pray.

Fasting, an often overlooked spiritual discipline, goes radically against the flesh, and warrants an opportunity for us to avert our eyes to our Savior. Fasting is not meant to draw attention to ourselves, unless of course it’s an unveiling of our destitution, then self-evaluation is appropriate, but fasting prompts us to turn our eyes toward our amazing God in praise and worship as we deprive ourselves of a specific, normal function.

Many choose to deprive themselves of food as they seek the Lord through prayer and fasting. Since food is the primary means by which fasting is taught in the bible, I think it is wise for one to follow this model.

However, there are circumstances when giving up food is not wise. Right now, my body is fighting to recover from a nursing strike brought on by a confused 10 month old. Therefore, to deny myself the needed nutrients to rebuild and maintain my supply of milk would be unwise. Therefore, my day of fasting will consist of a deprivation from Facebook, Twitter, and blogging. This proves to be particularly challenging due to the fact that my husband purchased an I-phone 4s for me as a Happy Birthday gift. No using it for the very thing I wanted it for? Not to mention, I will be in the car for seven hours? Yeesh! And to be clear, this post was scheduled yesterday. So, no I didn’t get on to post this today either.

Anyways, fasting must be done with a clearly defined spiritual purpose. Therefore, our purpose for fasting is three fold.

1. To Express Love and Worship to God

He is worthy of all of our praise. Fasting is a means by which we can express our devotion to our mighty God. A word of caution: By fasting, we do not earn a better standing before God. We are not more righteous for depriving ourselves of the gift of food. We are merely expressing that our greatest pleasure and enjoyment in life is only found in God.

2. To Seek God’s Guidance

We are desperate for God. We are desperate for clarity as we seek His will for our lives. By fasting, we are opening ourselves more fully to God to see His will emerge. Of course, more clarity and clearness of sight is not guaranteed, but we do put ourselves in the path of grace.

3. To Add Weight to Our Prayers

Fasting strengthens our petitions before God. Fasting has been used for centuries by the people of God to add weight and passion to their prayers. As we pray for our time of fellowship with our family, fasting orients our hearts toward God, and creates an urgency to our prayers.

So, my friends, we are using this second day of our intentional approach to Thanksgiving to submit our prayers to our Heavenly Father through a passionate acceptance of His gift of fasting.

Tell me. Have you ever fasted for a specific purpose? What was the result?

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Thinking through how we wanted to celebrate Thanksgiving meant that we had to think about why we celebrate Thanksgiving. Creating a Thankful Tree is only step one to an intentional approach to Thanksgiving.

As is my nature, I scoured the shelves of our local library (virtually, mind you), and found this book: Pilgrim Stories by Margaret Pumphrey. I absolutely adored this book. I felt like I was in middle school all over again. I was stealing every moment I could get to myself so I could read the next chapter.

As I have read through the history of the Pilgrims, I was amazed at how little I remembered from school. I was fascinated to read about Scrooby Manor, Pastor John Robinson, the escape to Holland, the Mayflower, hardtack, the loss of half the passengers the first winter, Squanto, and so much more. MayflowerHistory.com intrigued me for hours. It’s the mother load of information.

I was even more fascinated to imagine what life must have been like on the Mayflower, for the women especially. This week our first nursing strike took place, and our world got turned upside down. I couldn’t help but imagine what it would have been like if this had happened during my voyage to America in 1621 on a ship devoid of sufficient food for a growing baby. My boy probably would not have survived – many didn’t. I would have buried him up on the hill with the majority of my friends in a world that I knew nothing about.

Could you imagine the hurt, the pain, and the many nights of crying yourself to sleep; yet, all the while believing in a God who works all things for our good?

I cried when I read of the first “Thanksgiving Dinner.” The fellowship and the relief they must have felt. They had known extreme hardship, but now they were overflowing with food and provision from the hand of God. They even had enough to share with their Wompanoag friends.

And although it be not always so plentiful as it was at this time with us, yet by the goodness of God, we are so far from want that we often wish you partakers of our plenty. ~ Edward Winslow, December 12, 1621

It was a sweet respite before more bad news and hardship, but it was a glimpse of what was to come for them. Oh, the joy they must have felt.  The feeling that it was all worth it – the seasickness, the tears, the hunger, the fatigue. The Lord had provided a way for them to worship Him in freedom in this new land.

Of course, they weren’t entirely free, but as we look back, we see that what they did made a way for us. Because now, I can walk into my church building and worship our Heavenly Father without fear. Not to mention, I have more than enough food to feed my family – sometimes I think I have too many choices.

In light of all of this, I want to help my family to remember what the Pilgrims went through in order for us to celebrate this national holiday – Thanksgiving. It’s not just another day to gather with family. It’s a time to praise God for providing a way for us to worship Him.

To do this, my family will be Pilgrims for a day.  Tonight, we will be having a Mayflower Dinner followed by a Plymouth Dinner. In the future, we’ll try to incorporate in some costumes and props. {I got the idea from Doorposts. You can read about it here.}

We’ll be crowding into a corner of our garage (where our stinky dog sleeps), and eating our Mayflower Dinner. I have prepared the meal for us to eat together. We will talk about what the Pilgrims went through. We’ll read stories, and we’ll try to imagine and experience what life must have been like on the Mayflower.

Mayflower Dinner

Salted Beef

Beer

Hardtack

There are several recipes for this, but here is what I found. I made ours on Saturday so it didn’t get as much time to age as I would have preferred. However, this is our first year, right?

• 3 cups wheat flour
• 1 cup white flour
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1/2 – 3/4 cup water (amount varies)

Mix dry ingredients. Add water to get a stiff batter.  Roll dough out thin, about 1/4 inch thick, and roll it up into a tube, like you would for cinnamon rolls or jelly rolls.  Beat it down for several minutes, then fold it and repeat for several more times.  Then roll it out very thick (around 1 inch thick) and cut into square biscuits using a knife.  Place on an un-greased cookie sheet.  Poke the biscuits on the top, very deeply (but not all the way through), several times with a knife.  Bake for about 50 minutes at 350 degrees. Turn off oven, and let the biscuits cool in the oven. Let age for more traditional hardtack.

Then, we’ll move inside to our warm home and enjoy a nice Plymouth Dinner. We’ll be eating traditional foods from that first Thanksgiving. We’ll read from the book of Psalms and worship God for what He has done.

Plymouth Dinner

Boiled Cod

Take a little water, and as much beer, and salt, and add herbs (parsley, thyme, and rosemary). Let all these boil together: then put in your cod (or salmon), and make your broth sharp with some vinegar. {I wish they had written clearer directions in “those” days. This really doesn’t make a lot of sense to me, but I’ll give a try.}

Stewed Pumpkin

I read that they would slice the pumpkins and dice the flesh. Add water to a pot and stew the pumpkins on low heat all day. They will cook down to look like baked apples. Then, serve the pumpkin with butter, vinegar, and spices like ginger, etc.

As a side note, I also read that stewed pumpkin “provokes urine extremely and is very windy.” If I’m reading that right, I think they are saying it makes you go tee-tee a lot and gives you gas? Is that how you read that? This gave me a giggle.

Strawberry Cornmeal

This was a Wamponoag treat. I might try to make some sort of strawberry bread from my strawberry stash. {not this year unfortunately, but I will try this next year}

We are so excited to start this little tradition with our family. I imagine it will be more meaningful as Samuel grows and more children (Lord willing) are added to the mix.

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What traditions does your family have for Thanksgiving? Leave a comment and tell me about it!

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Every year, all around the country, turkeys come out of the oven stuffed to the brim and millions of pies are baked and served piping hot. I can almost taste my grandmother’s homemade pecan pie as I type.

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. It always has been. I have great memories of getting together with family, eating good food, and having no other purpose but to fellowship with one another. No presents to open. No appointments to keep. No where to go, but around the corner to Mamaw’s house.

Thanksgiving produces warm memories from my childhood.

This got me to thinking.

How can I create memories for my husband and children that will be remembered and looked forward to for years to come?

My answer was to create traditions of our own, of course!

Over the next couple of weeks, I am going to share with you what my family is doing to create lasting memories and foster thanksgiving in our hearts as we draw nearer to our Thanksgiving feast. It’s an intentional approach to Thanksgiving.

First up – Create a Thankful Tree.

We had so much fun creating our little tree. We got a little side tracked having a rodeo in our front yard, but once we got back on track, we had a mighty fine tree for hanging our leaves of thankfulness.

Want to make your own?

To create your own Thankful Tree you need:

• Gallon mason jar
• Paper bags from past grocery trips
• Twine
• Sticks from your yard
• Scrapbook paper
• Scissors
• Leaf stencil
• Hole punch

What you do:

1. Shred your paper bag and arrange in your jar.
2. Send your hubby outside to gather a few sticks/branches with your 10 month old.
3. Choose your best sticks from their stash.
4. Put the sticks in your jar of paper bag shreds.
5. Tie some twine around the neck of the jar.
6. Cut out leaves from your scrapbook paper.
7. Start writing what you are thankful for.
8. Punch holes in the leaf and loop some twine through so you can hang your leaf.

Each night at dinner, we talk about what we are thankful for. Yes, even Samuel gets a say.

This has been so much fun to see what everyone is thankful for. Not to mention, the Thankful Tree sits where I can see it from most anywhere I am in my home. I walk by it multiple times a day, and each time, I cannot help but smile.

Our tradition.
Our memory.
Our family.

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What about you? What traditions do you have for Thanksgiving? Share with us in the comments!

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