11/27/24 - 2070: For Thanksgiving, With Thanksgiving

Jim: You've tuned in to iWork4Him the voice of collaboration for the faith and work movement.

Martha: And we are your hosts, Jim and Martha Brangenberg.

Jim: It's the day before Thanksgiving and most of you will be listening to this on your way to grandmother's house. Over the hills and through the woods to grandmother's house we go. For those of you in the north and out in the Rockies, that trek may even include snow this time of year.

Thankfulness. As a workplace believer, a follower of Jesus, is thankfulness a requirement? Or is it an option? Is it an all the time behavior? Or just on Sunday morning? Any way you look at it, you need to consider what does it mean to be thankful and how much of your life should it be impacting. This show is focused on thankfulness and Thanksgiving with a little turkey and gravy and cranberry sauce thrown on top. Martha, what do you love most about Thanksgiving?

Martha: I think the thing that I love the most about Thanksgiving is how much it reminds me of Sunday afternoons as a kid. So our family always spent Sunday afternoons after church having a big meal at my grandmother's house.

And very much... I'm getting choked up. I don't know why. Good memories. And that's what Thanksgiving really feels like because everybody slows down, takes time to not be in a hurry, not having to go anywhere and just spend time together as a family.

Jim: And your Thanksgiving with your family were always a blast. And as we got married, the Thanksgiving family dinner was monstrous because there was so many people. But growing up as a kid My most fond memory of Thanksgiving was at my nana's house in new jersey. She had this big old victorian mansion from the 1800s and I had to sit at the kid table and usually with like chains and velcro on me so I wouldn't disturb everybody. Not really.

Martha: You couldn't sit through a meal?

Jim: No, but I remember as the meal, my grandmother had a huge table and incredible food and after the kids table, then she had these army men and it was my grandfather's army men. They were like metal army men and I got to play with the metal army men in the metal tanks, but

Martha: it was just to keep you occupied.

Jim: I was the youngest of all the cousins. I have a cousin that's 13 or 14 years older than me. So I was a little kid causing a lot of trouble all the time. But I just, those were fun times and traveling up to New Jersey from Maryland at the time was just, we're like going, we're going to go see family. And I like being family. Now we're a family with kids and relatives spread all across the country from sea to shining sea, from California to New Jersey.

Martha: Yeah.

Jim: It's sad because we're not always together with family.

Martha: It's just, it's different. And I think a lot of our listeners can relate to that because growing up, our family nucleus stayed closer in proximity to each other. So cousins and aunts and uncles and everybody lived in nearby towns. So it was more accessible to be together.

Jim: You had family all around you.

Martha: In different phases of life. That kept changing and now it's, it is widespread. But those memories, it's amazing when we look back on them and we think of it with fondness, not realizing as a little kid that would be a big deal to us.

Jim: Yeah, I don't remember much of the food. I do remember Thanksgiving's at at your family because your mother's stuffing is amazing. Yeah. And the cranberry sauce relish, I know it's called sauce. And then your mom introduced me to this thing called rice pudding. Oh boy, that's the penultimate...!

Martha: And for anybody who's ever seen rice pudding at a grocery store in a container that looks like a cottage cheese container, you have not experienced rice pudding. My mom's rice pudding has a three to four inches of egg white meringue on the top, that's Golden brown and comes out of the oven.

Although Sarah, our youngest, told me just yesterday that she prefers rice pudding when it's cold... when it comes right out of the oven and it's a little bit warm still like that, just it's a comfort food. I'm telling you. Anyway, we can sit here and talk recipes, but it's not a recipe show, Jim.

Jim: No, it's not. And this year, unfortunately in Southwest Missouri , the sweet potato souffle is going to be literally a small little dish because the sweet potatoes because of lack of rain looked like miniature carrots.

Martha: They are pretty small. They are pretty small. We might have to subsidize this week. I'm not sure I'm gonna give my only sweet fresh sweet potatoes to the souffle because they can handle store bought sweet potatoes.

Jim: But praise God we got rain in Missouri here just shortly ago, just a couple of weeks ago for the very first time since May. And we're really grateful because we were tired of the dry and the fires and everything like that.

Martha, is there one Thanksgiving meal, as you were growing up with your grandparents, I know your grandparents in Michigan and in Illinois, and you grew up in Illinois, one that's like your favorite?

Martha: Honestly, the one that I think of isn't necessarily when I was growing up, but we were young marrieds and my mom and dad were just putting an addition on their home to put in their photo studio and everything and the room wasn't finished. Mom put out big folding tables and we made this big table and the kids, all the grandkids, drew on construction paper and drawing paper and put them up on the walls to decorate the room because it was sheet rocked, but it wasn't finished. And, just, it was this atmosphere of, we can all gather together.

The room doesn't need to be perfect. We're all in a room together and just celebrating. And that was the one where one of our nephews grabbed the stick of butter and ate the whole butter. I don't know if you remember that or not, but we decided he must have been short on some fatty foods in his life. (laughing)

Jim: He now has a really long beard. Wasn't it that nephew? (laughing) I'm

Martha: not sure which one it was, but it was fun. But anyway, just again, that recollection that we were spending time together, everybody was doing things. We weren't being served. We were all involved. The kids were coloring and working on projects. Mom always had projects for the kids to do.

Jim: And she was great and entertaining the kids.

Martha: And then I'm pretty sure there was football in the backyard.

Jim: Oh yes, there was always the Thanksgiving football game. Uncle Phil against Uncle Jim and the teams that we recruited. Absolutely. All right.

Martha: I don't think there were any concussions.

Jim: No, no broken bones ever happened at Thanksgiving time.

Martha: But I think a lot of people can relate though, that some years you'd be in winter coats with lots of padding because it would be freezing and other years you'd be in short sleeves. But there was always some outside activity.

Jim: Minnesota snow football was the best because when you get tackled all you go * poof* It's nice.

All right. So growing up in my house, thanksgiving meals didn't always have a lot of Thanksgiving. My dad always prayed over the meal and there'd be Thanksgiving in the prayer and then that was pretty much it. At your family, you know, your mom liked to create an atmosphere of Thanksgiving. Let's talk about that.

Martha: I think it was, it really boils down to intentionality and why were we all getting together? Number one, it's just great to be with family, but to truly focus on Thanksgiving means spending some time talking about it. And so that was a big part of the meal, and we often anticipated that it would be after everybody's tummies were full. We're sitting there. Nobody has cleared any plates. Everybody listening.

Jim: The tryptophan hasn't kicked in yet.

Martha: Everybody listening right now. Here is a tip as a hostess. Don't rush the process. When people are done eating, there is no reason that the mashed potatoes that are left over need to be cleared off at the table at that moment.

It's a big thing that Jim and I have learned over the years in our own marriage is that is when the best conversations happen. Nothing on your table is going to spoil and if it does, that's okay because they've already all filled their tummies. Sit there and spend some time in conversation. Mom would do things like she would have pieces of paper at the table that would maybe prompt a conversation about what you're thankful for, or we would go around the table and share highlights of things that we are thankful for from the past year or each other.

We did it a bunch of different ways over the years, but always forcing that conversation. And yes, sometimes it was like, Oh, it's time for it to be a little awkward.

Jim: And then the family pictures would come. Ladies and gentlemen, just so you know, Martha's dad was a professional photographer and her mom and dad worked together. And so you'd have, you'd always have to enhance the holiday by a family picture being taken.

Martha: A posed picture is what you're talking about.

Jim: Which sometimes wasn't my favorite part of the day.

Martha: No, but in hindsight, it's some of our greatest memories.

Jim: Still wasn't the favorite part of my day.

Martha: Some of our greatest memories are reminded by those pictures.

Jim: Yes, some of those greatest memories of the first Thanksgiving after Martha and I got married, or engaged.

Martha: Oh, that was a holiday.

Jim: Oh yes, it was the first Thanksgiving where my brother in law to be put a plate in front of my face on Thanksgiving.

Martha: Because we were officially dating but that was

Jim: Dating or were we engaged?

Martha: Maybe that was when we were engaged, but you were we still have you know, it still wasn't a legal binding yet so in the family picture Jim has a plate over his face, but we digress.

Jim: But that was funny for everybody else but me.

Martha: Yes. All right. All right. Thanksgiving dinner in my home was very intentional as we were just talking about, but it seems to me that it is one of the most impactful part of our lives. It comes out of being intentional, which is why at iWork4Him and in our home, we've been super intentional about what we support and where we spend our money. Our sponsors are all companies that conduct business based on biblical values. You can be intentional today and engage with these sponsors that make a difference and help provide this very program.

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Martha: All right, Jim. So where does the attitude of thankfulness actually come from? Where do you think?

Jim: Love, Joy, peace, patience... I think it's a fruit of the spirit, but it's a summary conglomeration of them all. I think thankfulness really comes from the root of our faith because we're, it's gratefulness. I mean, we're taught to be thankful, but thankfulness really flows from the heart.

Martha: It comes to mind this song that you love that says that we don't get what we deserve.

Jim: (singing) We don't get what we deserve.

That's on the worldwide message tribe album from 1990.

Martha: Yes, that is really why we should be thankful, that what we deserve is death. And because of Jesus Christ, we have the gift of eternal life as a possibility for us when we accept Jesus as our Savior. And what better thing to be thankful for than that?

Jim: Yeah, you're going down with "we deserve death." This is a Thanksgiving show!

Martha: But we can be thankful because there is hope.

Jim: For the turkey that sacrifices its life for us.

And Jesus who sacrifices his life also for us.

Martha: What if you have ham?

Jim: Then the poor pig died for us. Or if you had prime rib, the poor cow died. But we're grateful to all of them for sacrificing their lives on behalf of our waistline. But more seriously thankfulness flows from the heart and it's from a heart of gratefulness because of the mercy that God extends to us. Some verses may come to mind - Psalm 107 verse 1: give thanks to the lord for he is good His faithful love endures forever.

I think there's a couple...

Martha: there's a lot of songs

Jim: a lot of songs like that.

Martha: It's a psalm. So it really was probably a song originally too, but

Jim: (singing) Give thanks with a grateful heart. Give thanks...

Martha: That's so good. You know another verse that I think of is first thessalonians 5: 18 and it says be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you who belong to Christ Jesus. And the verses right before that, which most of us have heard: always be joyful, never stop praying, be thankful in all circumstances.

So I have a plaque on our bedroom wall that says, pray always.

Jim: She had to think about it.

Martha: I did. (laughing)

Jim: Usually your eyes are closed when we're in our bedroom.

Martha: But I was thinking about this. I often lay there and I see that plaque on the wall.

Jim: When my snoring is keeping her awake.

Martha: Yeah. Then it's dark. I can't really see the plaque then, but just do we really realize what those verses say? And give thanks in all circumstances you know it there's a lot of circumstances where that is not our first inclination.

Jim: Have we answered the question though? Is it optional as a believer? I don't believe it is optional. No. Philippians 4: 6 says don't worry about anything, but in everything through prayer and petition with Thanksgiving present your request to God . Thanksgiving should flow from us because we have everything to be thankful for. We have been set free.

We have been rescued by God. We've been set free. We have everything to live for because we will never die. Our bodies will degrade and shut down, but our new body will kick in. Our relationship with our heavenly father kicked in the minute we surrendered our lives to Jesus. And he allowed us to have that relationship with our heavenly father because of the sacrifice he made on the cross And it's all worth it. I mean, it's just, it's incredible, but of course we should be thankful!

Martha: But is that in our nature? Like we need to be reminded. That's why if you actually look in your Bible in the, like where you can look up words and find out what verses have it, there are a lot of verses about being thankful because God has reminded us that we need that because in our flesh, in the middle of all circumstances, when we're worrying, when we're anxious, it says to bring those prayers to him with Thanksgiving. What about that, Jim? I want to land on this for a minute. How do we approach those hard things and bring it to the Lord with Thanksgiving?

Jim: I was going to quote a verse from first hesitations. (laughing) For crying out loud, be thankful! You got everything to be thankful for so shut up and put a smile on your face and be thankful to God.

Martha: And that's why that book was not canonized.

Jim: Oh, yeah, that's right. But I wake up every morning thanking God for you, Martha, and I sincerely do because I'm so grateful. And it's easy to be reminded first thing in the morning to be thankful. When the day kicks in, It's a little harder to be thankful because things distract us, but we need to be reminded all the time. So that's why it's good to have those be thankful plaques in every room you go to.

All right. So this attitude, should it impact our work? Yes, it should. Should it impact our home life? Absolutely. Should it impact our raising our kids? Yes. It's harder though, by the way, with our kids, not necessarily when they're cute little babies, but when they have dirty diapers. That's hard to be thankful for dirty diapers. And then when they're shifting into teenagehood. There's it's hard to be thankful when they're spreading their wings and the push back is a little intense. And it's hard when they're adults and they don't necessarily need you anymore. But we should still be thankful while we're raising, be grateful to have kids. David said we should have a quiver full. We only have three We missed the opportunity, Martha. It's a small quiver.

Martha: No, we didn't. No, we didn't. That is not a small quiver.

Jim: We should have 17. That's what a quiver is. I think a quiver holds 17. (laughing) But do you think, has Thanksgiving always impacted your attitude at work? Like right now? Are you thankful that you're on a podcast with your husband? Like it's show number two thousand and seventy by the way.

Martha: That's crazy.

Jim: It is crazy.

Martha: I am thankful that we've made it to show number two thousand and seventy.

Jim: Without any professional counseling as well and that's really important to note.

Martha: In fact you're gonna say one of the things we're thankful about.

Jim: We mentioned our sponsors early in the show today, and we also mentioned how much we love our children. Now is a perfect time to tell them all, thank you for believing in the message of iWork4Him. I want to thank you all for believing in the message of iWork4Him, for supporting us. Many of you support us on a monthly basis and helping other believers to unlock God's purpose for their work, to make that connection between the truth of scripture and the power of their work, to be an influencer and to be active in ministry on their mission field of their workplace.

Thank you to all of you who sponsor iWork4Him and who donate on a regular basis to iWork4Him. There's always room for more of you to donate to iWork4Him to help us complete the tapestry project and if you'd like to know more about it just pop me an email jim at iWork4Him. com. That's Jim at I work the number 4 him. com. I'll tell you about it. We'd love to have you join in sponsoring that really special project, taking it nationwide in 2025.

Martha: All right. So you wanted to talk briefly about how we're going to be spending Thanksgiving.

Jim: Is that your chair making all that noise? I

Martha: think it is. I'm sorry. I usually sit forward and I was doing a more relaxed pose today and it's squeaky.

Jim: So this year, Thanksgiving, we're going all in. We're grabbing my 90 and 91 year old parents, who have moved next door to us in southwest Missouri, and we're shoving them in a minivan with us and traveling all the way to minnesota. Now, it's only 650 miles, but mom and dad don't travel much anymore. But to fly would take 14 hours. We think the drive should only take 10. And so We're going all in but going up to the frozen tundra, which there may be some snow and I hope so. And We'll get to spend time, bring mom and dad back to minnesota for the first time in many years, seven or eight years and get a chance for them to see other of their grandchildren and children, all in this great holiday. We're looking forward to that. Okay, we're really looking forward to it once we get to Minnesota. The traveling, I don't know how many stops it's going to take between here and Minnesota.

Martha: That's okay. We'll take the prayers with Thanksgiving. For Thanksgiving, at Thanksgiving, with Thanksgiving.

I like that. But, you know

Jim: So we should write Thanksgiving on the rental van?

Martha: Oh, sure. Okay. I think like everybody

Jim: That's a good idea.

Martha: So much like many of you, you're probably going to be traveling, spending time with family. I think that this little walk down memory lane, one of the things that we hope to come out of it is that we realize that we have an opportunity all the time to think more intentionally about how we're spending the time together.

So try to make an impact. Try to make it be a time of encouragement for the others around your table and really just let them enjoy and make some new memories, because that's what we're going to be doing.

Jim: All right, as this is the beginning of Christmas shopping what do we have for sale, Martha?

Martha: You had this idea that we could have our books on sale for 5 each, plus shipping, for an indefinite amount of time between now and Christmas. I guess I should say that would be a definite amount of time, right? Between now and Christmas.

Jim: Which is, when you listen to this podcast, four weeks.

Martha: But we can't make that sale on Amazon. So that's a sale that you have to do directly with us on our website.

Jim: Because if we did that on Amazon, we'd be paying Amazon 10 bucks a book.

Martha: There you go. But we would love to share the resources with you. So if you are interested in buying some books and having them shipped either to you or directly to somebody, I'll even gift wrap them if they're going to someone directly.

Jim: Gift wrapping included in the 5 price - unprecedented.

Martha: Unbelievable. So just reach out to me, Martha at IWorkForHim. com.

Jim: What books are we talking about? Are we just talking about some random book we picked up at the thrift store?

Martha: Oh yeah. Anything I can find on the shelf.

Jim: Alright, how about iWork4Him, really about connecting your faith and your work. iRetire4Him, Finding purpose in your next phase of life and retirement. sheWorks4Him, an amazing gathering of stories of christian working women living out their faith at work and the things that they deal with. We've also got some other - Are we going to give away any other?

Martha: We can do any of the other ones, so we also have our, we contributed a chapter to a book that was published by the U. S. Christian Chamber, and you also published a chapter within the Pastoring World Changers. So If you are interested in knowing more about the books we have available, we could even make you a bundle.

Really, it's about blessing you to bless others because these are just messages that God's given us to share and we would love to be very generous right now.

Jim: It's amazing. I got an email from a guy who got a copy of our book from, I have no random idea where he got it from. He's Jim, I read your book. It was like, oh, and then I read it again. I'm like, oh my word. This changed my life. This changed my work life. I wish I could quote a word for word. I'll try.

Martha: What do you mean? He read it once and it was eh, and then he read it again?

Jim: When he went back through the second time it really impacted him. I have no idea, I don't know how he missed it the first time.

Martha: But here's the amazing thing. Obviously, God prompted him to read it again, right?

Jim: But it transformed the way he looked at work. And every time somebody, and the greatest part about our books is, yes, we did write it. And they're collaborative books, but Martha's dad wrote his stories of living out his faith in his work as part of iWork4Him and living out his faith in his retirement as part of iRetire4Him. you'll love hearing Ted's heart as part of all that. Now, Ted's gone on to be with the Lord full time, face to face, but his stories, Left Behind.

Martha: That's right.

Jim: But not the Left Behind series. I'm not giving you that up. I'm keeping my own.

Martha: The iWork4Him Series. That's right. Okay, so let's get down to the nitty gritty. Thursday is Thanksgiving. Friday is Black Friday. Saturday is Small Business Saturday, and then skip a few days to Tuesday, December 3rd, and it is Giving Tuesday. This is a day that's set aside to help support the nonprofits that you believe in and can gain value from. And it's a little backwards in how it's set up, because ultimately people might say I've spent all my money before you get to the donation day.

So if the messages that have been shared with you from iWork4Him, iRetire4Him, or sheWorks4Him have helped you to better connect your faith and your work or your retirement, would you consider giving it forward? This is an opportunity for you to help others understand that all of their life is to be integrated with their faith.

You can go to iWork4Him. com forward slash donate. That will be in the show notes. We would love for you to join our team and help pay it forward to so that others can hear this message as well.

Jim: You'll be impacting people around the world. So from Martha's heart and my heart to you, from our heart to you, happy Thanksgiving. We wish that we were there with you trying out all your favorite dishes, but we'll be with my family in Minnesota, hopefully doing some snowmobiling.

And if this episode has been helpful to you, be sure to subscribe and stay connected and share it with a friend. Hopefully it's made you giggle a couple of times.

You've been listening to iWork4Him with your host, Jim and Martha Brangenberg. We're Christ followers. Our workplace, it's our mission field, but ultimately iWork4Him.