Making Biblical Family Life Practical

This week we’re talking about gift giving – it’s Biblical, you know!  But how do you manage it without being immersed in the commercialism of a secular holiday, while glorifying God and having fun together? We’ve found that being more intentional and deliberate in choosing gifts and even in how we open them together, and encouraging our children to think of people rather than stuff at Christmas, has great benefits!

Biblical Passages We Mentioned

The wise men who brought gifts to Jesus – Matthew 2:1-11

How Our Family Christmas List is Structured

We described how our family keeps up with everyone’s “wish list” – not just at Christmas, but all year long! Here’s the basic framework – each person’s section of the family list is divided into price brackets, and it’s the responsibility of each person to keep their list up to date. And when the shopping happens, gift-givers quietly delete items so others don’t duplicate their gift!

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Updated: (be sure to make a note here when you make changes to your list!) 

• $1-$5 Gifts: Your categories may differ, depending on the ages in your family and your personal budgets. We have to consider young children, teenagers, college students, and adults of all sorts.
• $5-$15 Gifts: If you have specific items in mind, you might include links to places these might be found. Many in our families are avid readers. We often have lists of books here – and links to Amazon.com or Thriftbooks.com to make it easy
• $15-$30 Gifts:  Grown-up level
• Big Gifts: Because you never know when someone might find a great deal, or several people collaborate
• Crafts, Work, and Services: Busy people may appreciate help with a particular hard-to-schedule need. One of Hal’s hopes last year was for help replacing our garage door – and two of our adult sons came over and made a weekend project of it!

Looking for more ideas?

Check out our favorite board games.

And visit our Gift Guide for Boys.

Shop our Craftsman Crates and More.

The post Gift Giving in a Big Family – MBFLP 273 (Holiday Replay) appeared first on Ultimate Homeschool Podcast Network.

     

Making Biblical Family Life Practical with Hal & Melanie Young

Thanksgiving is one of the few holidays that still says what it means—giving thanks. But how do we move it beyond food, football, and stress, and turn it into a joyful, Christ-centered family tradition?

In this episode, Hal and Melanie share how you can reclaim Thanksgiving as a time of purposeful remembrance, gratitude, and witness to your extended family—without losing the fun or the feast.

In This Episode, We Talk About:

Why Thanksgiving is worth “reforming”

• How Thanksgiving is uniquely suited to be a God-centered holiday in modern culture

• The biblical pattern of feasts and memorials (like Passover) as models for our celebrations

• Why Christians should be known for joyful feasting, not just “saying no” to everything

The real story behind the first Thanksgiving

• The suffering and “dying time” the Pilgrims endured their first winter

• God’s providence in Squanto’s story and the empty land where they settled

• Why reading William Bradford and Edward Winslow in their own words gives a truer, richer picture than the typical school version

• How the character of the Pilgrims and Puritans still shapes the American mindset: conviction, courage, and willingness to do hard things

Making Thanksgiving Christ-centered at your house

• Why hosting the celebration yourself lets you set the tone, pace, and priorities

• Using history, Scripture, song, and simple traditions to turn the day into a living testimony

• How these practices can gently impact even very “worldly” or skeptical family members

Practical Ideas You Can Use This Year

1. The Thanksgiving Tree
A simple, powerful gratitude habit:

• Tape or pin a paper tree trunk to the wall

• Put a basket of paper “leaves” and a pen on the table

• Every time you sit down to eat, everyone writes one thing they’re thankful for and adds it to the tree

• Over time, the tree fills up and helps your family see just how much God has done—even in hard seasons like job loss or uncertainty

2. Five Kernels of Corn Tradition

To remember the Pilgrims’ real hunger and God’s real provision:

• Place five kernels of corn on each person’s plate

• Have the youngest confident reader read the poem “Five Kernels of Corn”

• As you eat, each person shares five specific things they’re thankful for—one for each kernel

• This tradition humbles us, reminds us of what our ancestors endured, and helps us appreciate God’s daily mercies

3. Reading and Singing Together

Bring back the old, good traditions:

• Read from primary sources about the first Thanksgiving (Bradford, Winslow, historic proclamations from Washington or Lincoln)

• Share the story of God’s providence in the Pilgrims’ lives in their own words

• Sing classic hymns of praise and thanksgiving as a family after the meal

• Don’t be surprised when even very “sophisticated” or non-religious relatives are deeply moved—many people quietly long for meaning, ceremony, and reflection

Resources Mentioned

• We Gather Together (Thanksgiving e-book) UPDATE 2025: This resource is not titled, “Christ-Centered Thanksgiving”
  A complete guide to celebrating a Christ-centered Thanksgiving:

  • True accounts and quotes from Pilgrim history

  • Thanksgiving proclamations

  • Songs and hymns to sing

  • Planning pages, charts, and forms for stress-free hosting

  • Tried-and-true recipes (including how to cook the best turkey ever!)

  • Scripts and ideas for what to say and do at your celebration

  Learn more at: RaisingRealMen.com

• Pollyanna (Unabridged Audiobook by Melanie Young)
  The original, funny, thoughtful story—not the syrupy version!

  • A pastor’s daughter who always looks for God’s blessing in every circumstance

  • Perfect family read-aloud or listen-together in the weeks leading up to Thanksgiving

  • Helps cultivate a “gratitude habit” in your home

  Find it at: RaisingRealMen.com/Pollyanna

Takeaway

You don’t have to settle for a holiday that’s all about food and football. With a little planning and a bit of boldness, you can:

• Turn Thanksgiving into a family tradition your kids will treasure

• Offer a gentle, powerful witness to your extended family

• Reclaim a holiday that’s already about thanking God, and point the gratitude clearly back to Him

Listen & Share

You can listen to this episode and others in the series at:
HalandMelanie.com/radio or by searching “Making Biblical Family Life Practical” on your favorite podcast app.

If this episode encouraged you, would you take a moment to leave a review on iTunes? It helps more families discover the show and recapture their holidays for Christ.

The post MBFLP – Celebrating Thanksgiving (Holiday Replay) appeared first on Ultimate Homeschool Podcast Network.

     

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Most of our eight kids are adults now and we are so blessed to have good relationships with all of them – and they all get along with their siblings, too!  Some people ask if they’ve always been peaceable, and we have to say NOPE. But we found several things along the way that helped shape the sort of family we have today – that’s the subject of this episode!

References 

Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members? You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures.  (James 4:1-3)

“You shall not hate your brother in your heart. You shall surely rebuke your neighbor, and not bear sin because of him.You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the children of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the LORD.” (God, in Leviticus 19:17-18)

“Moreover if your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he hears you, you have gained your brother. 16 But if he will not hear, take with you one or two more, that ‘by the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established.’”
(Jesus, in Matthew 18:15-16)

One of our favorite resources:
“The Brother Offended Checklist” (Doorposts)

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The post “Didn’t Your Kids Fight?” – MBFLP 314 appeared first on Ultimate Homeschool Podcast Network.

     

Christians and Jews are sometimes called “People of the Book” because we rest our beliefs on the written word of God. It’s natural for a new believer to have a new desire to read the Bible — but there are a lot of different versions on the shelf! What makes them different? Which Bible is best for new believers? What would we recommend for young readers? We’ve used many different Bibles over the years, and this episode we’re talking about what we’ve experienced, what we used with our family, and what we’d recommend for someone new to the faith!

RESOURCES YOU MIGHT FIND HELPFUL

Are you a new believer, or do you know one?

You might find our last episode helpful:

Episode 312 – Going to Church for the First Time? 

We visited Washington, DC, and recorded this episode from the Museum of the Bible. If you’re there in the city full of museums, this one is definitely worth a stop!

Episode 308 – The Bible is Reliable

Bible Programs We Like 

Hal likes Bible App by Olive Tree  and Melanie uses the ESV Bible App by Crossway. Both have reading schedules to help you make Bible a daily habit and keep you on track! Some of our young people like YouVersion, too. All of these are available for Android or iPhone users.

A more complex app (and website) Hal uses for study is The Blue Letter Bible

This free app allows you to choose from more than 15 English translations, the Latin Vulgate, multiple Greek versions, and a large number of modern languages, too — along with links to commentaries and study tools. Really useful for deep personal study, or just to clarify a confusing verse (how do other translations phrase this?)

The best part of a phone app is you always have the Bible with you – and it’s easy to look up references or passages with the search function, too.

The post What Bible Should I Get? – MBFLP 313 appeared first on Ultimate Homeschool Podcast Network.

     

After the shocking and tragic death of Charlie Kirk last month, there was an unexpected tide of people online who found themselves drawn to God in a way they never had. Some had left the church of their childhood years ago, while others had never been in church at all! Suddenly they felt a call to be in church now. And many had questions – how do I approach this? Do I need an invitation? What’s expected of me? This episode, we’ll look at some common questions and give some good news for those whose hearts are strangely warmed!

Some Resources You Might Find Helpful

When You Need to Find a New Church (episode 164) – We talk about some steps we take if the time comes to find a new church, whether due to relocation, a need for different ministries, or some other reason.

Children and “Big Church” (episode 218) – We talk about how we raised our eight children to stay in the main service at church, rather than going to children’s ministry or the nursery. It’s possible, with patience and gentleness, to teach even very young kids when to stay quiet and (reasonably) still, and actually to learn some things from the sermon as well!

The post First Time in Church? – MBFLP 312 appeared first on Ultimate Homeschool Podcast Network.