Title: The Dinner Table
Date:
Parents,
When I was younger, my mother worked a lot of afternoon shifts, but on her days off, she always stressed the importance of eating dinner together. It was difficult with two of us playing sports and engaged in a ton of church activities, but she always seemed to prioritize dinnertime over everything else. It was a time to remove distractions, thank God for our meal, and talk about our day and what was going on in our lives. It was also filled with life lessons usually from Proverbs (which my brother and I laughed at and probably rolled our eyes…. but we were listening.) Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t without arguing over whose piece of cake was bigger or who was kicking who under the table, but it was a great time for us to be a family.
The Bible is filled with scripture regarding food and meals. In fact, Jesus gave His disciples some very important news during a meal that we call “The Last Supper” Jesus performs His first miracle by turning water into wine at a wedding feast, not to mention feeding 5000 with a boy’s meal of fish and bread. It is safe to say that mealtime is very important.
This month, I am asking you to join me in making dinnertime a priority. Start a new routine by engaging at dinnertime as a family and make it part of your routine over the next 4 weeks. I have a couple tips to help:
1. Link dinner with something else that brings connection. Dinner and devotions. Dinner and a board game. Dinner and ______! You can connect dinner nights with something else fun. (Cathy and I would sometimes have a themed dinner like Polish night with our girls and have polish food and polkas playing in the background. It was absolutely ridiculous, but those dinners were sure memorable and they helped open up conversations about school, friends, etc..)
2. Have a question each meal. Leverage a question that everyone around the table can answer. As your kids get older questions change but intentional questions spark connection.
3. Have a quick family devotional and time of prayer. Have someone in the family share a thought from the Bible and then pray together as a family. We provide weekly devotions in Creation Station and Base Camp. Those are great and easy to use.
4. Let kids plan the meal once a week. Get kids involved in cooking or planning the meal. It’s just fun and making it fun will make it stick as a family.
You may not be able to do this every night, but try to embrace dinner nights as a priority as much as you are able. Schedule your week so this time becomes a priority meaning you say no to other things that might break the tradition. I have a feeling that you will never regret making these memories.
Your partner,
Jeff Brown
Family Life Pastor
