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6: A Thanksgiving Blessing
202 Plays4 years ago
With Thanksgiving quickly approaching, Jill Devine reflected on the conversation she had with Pastor Jim Mueller in BONUS (4b): Jill Devine’s Questions For Pastor Jim Mueller. Pastor Jim talked about including everyone at the Thanksgiving table, including the kids. Take a listen to this bonus episode to hear Pastor Jim’s Thanksgiving thoughts and then you will hear a Thanksgiving Blessing read by Jill, written by Mary Fairchild.
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Transcript
Introduction and Critique of Christianity
00:00:00
Speaker
The following podcast is a Jill Devine media production. Christianity has become known for judgy people, strange words, ancient stories, confusing rules, and a members only mindset. This is why I stayed away from the church for so long, but it's not supposed to be
Meet Jill Devine: Tattoos and Tequila
00:00:17
Speaker
that way. I'm Jill Devine, a former radio personality with three tattoos, a love for a good tequila, and who's never read the entire Bible.
00:00:24
Speaker
Yet here I am hosting a podcast about faith. The normal goes a long way podcast is your home for real conversations with real people using real language about how faith and real life intersect. Welcome to the conversation.
Thanksgiving Bonus Episode: Memories and Gratitude
00:00:41
Speaker
Welcome to this bonus Thanksgiving episode of Normal Goes a Long Way. I'm your host Jill Devine, and in just a couple of days we get to celebrate Thanksgiving with our friends and family and create memories, but also reflect on what we're grateful for. And in the bonus episode of the questions that I asked Pastor Jim, based on his episode with Laura Fleetwood, episode four,
00:01:10
Speaker
There was something that I brought up that I remember he preached about, and it was about including everyone at the Thanksgiving table. And while literally he meant that, it's also just sort of a metaphor in your entire life, too, to include everyone. But if you happen to miss that, here's the specific part where we talked about that Thanksgiving table and what you should and shouldn't do.
00:01:38
Speaker
I tell you what, the restaurants that are in your town, that matters because that teaches diversity. What you eat at your table matters. The people that you're around and who your friends are, that matters. So I have a lot of hope for the future.
00:01:53
Speaker
I am done with my questions, but something that I was hoping that you could end with just to hit me when you were talking about that.
Pastor Jim on Inclusion: No Kids' Table?
00:02:02
Speaker
You have said this before in a sermon about making sure the kids are at the Thanksgiving table. I never thought of that until you did talk about that. And I was just hoping you could explain that a little bit.
00:02:16
Speaker
Don't have a kids table for Thanksgiving. Don't have a kids table that's separate and in a different room with their conversation. And then have the adult table where the adults do adulting.
00:02:28
Speaker
What a terrible way to celebrate as a family. So what I've done at one Thanksgiving, and then I started doing this ever since is we would take our dining room table and then take our kitchen table, which is six feet long. It's pretty big too. Um, and we will put them next to each other. So it makes like a long, a long, but we still didn't have enough seats. So then I got banquet tables, folding tables, and attach them and kind of made an L and some of those seats were a little bit out of the room.
00:02:58
Speaker
But the idea was this, that everybody belongs at the table because everybody mentors everybody. So I want the grandparents to hear what the grandkids are talking about. I don't want just the kids to be quiet and listen. I want everybody listening. I want everybody talking.
Family Bonding at Thanksgiving
00:03:15
Speaker
So I think it's important as a parent too. Don't get lots of TVs in your house.
00:03:22
Speaker
You go watch cartoons because you're four and you go watch sports because you're a 14 year old boy and you go watch Pretty Little Liars because you're a 15 year old girl and dad's going to be on his own watching a war movie. Like we fragment so much in our culture and it's like the art of the family movie night.
00:03:41
Speaker
The art of having a Thanksgiving table that's big enough for everyone. There's something in that. And there's going to be times where we're segmented. There's going to be times where something's not appropriate for the kids. There's too many of those times. I'd like to I'd like that metaphor of a big awkward table and a table so full that you don't have enough China. You got to get paper plates. Amen. That's a good table. An easy cleanup, right? Yeah.
00:04:10
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hopefully what Pastor Jim said resonates with you and makes you think a little bit and maybe you will make that table a little bit bigger this Thanksgiving or you will invite the kids to the table.
A Tradition of New Conversations
00:04:24
Speaker
I was recently talking to someone
00:04:26
Speaker
About different traditions and on Thanksgiving she said there's place cards with the names of all the guests But everybody sits by somebody they don't normally sit by so she says she doesn't sit by her husband She doesn't sit by her mom or anything like that
00:04:42
Speaker
She sits by somebody she hasn't seen in a while and it helps strike up conversation and just be introduced to new conversations that maybe wouldn't normally happen. I think that's a really cool thing and I just hope that we do that not only this Thanksgiving, but every Thanksgiving and as many times as we can in our life.
Closing Blessing: Gratitude and Faith
00:05:04
Speaker
I'd like to wrap up this episode with a Thanksgiving blessing. I found this online from Mary Fairchild. It's called On Thanksgiving Day.
00:05:14
Speaker
Heavenly Father, on Thanksgiving Day, we bow our hearts to you and pray. We give you thanks for all you've done, especially for the gift of Jesus, your Son. For beauty and nature, your glory we see for joy and health, friends and family. For daily provision, your mercy and care, these are the blessings you graciously share. So today we offer this responsive praise
00:05:36
Speaker
with a promise to follow you all of our days. Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family. I hope it's an amazing day and thank you for listening to Normal Goes a Long Way.