![]() Increasingly, William grew dissatisfied with the state-sponsored religion of the Church of England. As a teenager, he walked every week to a nearby village called Scrooby to learn more of the Christian faith and to worship God secretly, in a personal and pure way, with a small group of like-minded believers. As a result, he was allowed to be educated, and he learned to read the Bible on his own. Not long after his mother died, William suffered a prolonged illness that left him unable to work in the fields. He was placed in the home of two uncles in Austerfield. While still a boy, he was orphaned his father dying when he was a baby, his mother when he was seven. Nestled in those hills was a little village named Austerfield, and in that village, in 1590, a child named William Bradford was born. Narrator: The roots of our Thanksgiving heritage are entwined with the history of England, growing deep into the rolling green hills of the English countryside. Here’s Barbara Rainey’s Thanksgiving: A Time to Remember. It’s a two-part series, but I want you to hear the first part today. Today, I want us to listen together to the story of the Pilgrims-and all the sacrifice and all that they went through to come here to America-and why they did! Then, next week, we’re going to continue the story. In fact, FamilyLife ®, just a few years ago, dramatized this book. It’s through that motivation that Barbara wrote a book entitled Thanksgiving: A Time to Remember. It’s also a burden that she continued to work with her family to show them the sacrifices and to really form in them a thankful heart. This was a burden that God laid on her heart many years ago. She’s been concerned for many years that we, the people, don’t really know or understand what Abraham Lincoln referred to when he began his famous Gettysburg Address with the statement: “Four score and seven years ago, our fathers brought forth upon this continent a new nation conceived in Liberty.”īarbara was determined that her children would hear the stories of the courageous men, women, and children who lived honorably and, through faith in God, made enormous sacrifices to secure freedom for all of us. It’s a holiday for celebrating faith, family, and freedom. It’s both distinctly Christian, but exclusively American. The national observance of Thanksgiving is unique. You know, it’s the holiday where you can crash on your grandma’s couch, or you can eat the leftovers out of mom’s refrigerator it’s a holiday of rest. It’s in stark contrast to the frenzy of obligation and spending that threatens to destroy the essence of Christmas. ![]() ![]() As Barbara says, it’s the holiday of rest. It’s my friend, Barbara Rainey’s, favorite holiday. ![]() Although most American’s lives don’t center on a literal harvest anymore, many of us do gather together every year on the fourth Thursday of November. That hymn has been sung for years at Thanksgiving. You probably remember this, or you may have sung it in your church: We Gather Together to Ask the Lord’s Blessing. It became a very popular hymn quite fast. You know, it was in the late sixteenth century when a new hymn hit the European churches. Michelle: Welcome to FamilyLife This Week. ![]()
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