By Randall Friesen
GATEWAY COVENANT CHURCH
Prince Albert Daily Herald
I"ve never been one of those people who feels the need to pray before you dig in to your meal. I mean, that prayer can at times become a seemingly dead thing. “Mumble Mumble Mumble , Amen.”?
Having said that, I also have to say that it is something Lauralea and I have done with our kids from nearly day one.
Why do we do it?
Is it to teach our children how to pray, or how to pray regularly? Maybe early on. But it does become a joke when you sit down to eat and repeat the family mealtime prayer, say amen, and not 5 seconds later one of the twerps at the table will honestly inquire why we are eating because we haven"t prayed yet.
Sigh. Yeah, deep spiritual moment there.
I have never thought its just done for those reasons though.
For me, the reasons we pray that simple little banal ditty before we eat a meal go deeper.
It is the only time in the rush of our family life, that we come together to stop, and pray. Whether its banal or not, trite or not, we are praying together. We are recognizing something or someone bigger than ourselves, God. And in so doing, it becomes an act of worship.
In moments when considered deeply, it becomes holy, reverent, and true. Of course you will have days when its only blah blah blah. But you keep on praying, day by day. And some days it"s more. Each day gives you and the kids one more opportunity to make it more.
And common prayer shapes us. It defines who we are and how we connect and relate to each other, and to God, The Greater.
When God created this world and gave it to humankind, he gave us the keys to it. To an extent greater than we may realize, what we wanted would be, and what we didn"t want, wouldn"t be.
Somewhere in the fall of humanity, we gave a spare set of keys to God"s enemy. We gave him room to be here too. To come and go mostly as he pleased.
I have always seen prayer as us inviting God into the equation again. It"s us recognizing that we need him here on earth, in our lives. Asking him to do here on earth and in us, as it is in heaven.
When we do that together, it can become a deeply moving and sometimes a powerful act of worship and unity.
Last fathers day as my whole family gathered together at mom and dad"s for lunch, we stood and sat around the room getting ready to eat. As we prepared, we entered again into that prayer that we had prayed a million times as family. Sometimes angry, sometimes sad or hurt, and many times completely unaware. Only occasionally were we aware of what we were saying and doing. But that day we prayed again, and it was an act of worship and thanksgiving.
We were unaware of what the week would bring, but we were aware of God"s presence and our unity in him that day. In the common prayer we did together what we could not do individually, we united our hearts around Jesus, it was a holy moment in our routine lives.
Later that week dad passed away, suddenly but not unexpectedly. We as family gathered again to make plans and of course to share a meal together. As we bowed our heads there was a moment of realization for most of us, that this was the first time we would pray with one of us gone on. It was a sobering reminder that while we may come and go, prayer remains.
Yes, there is deep value in prayer. It becomes deeper still when it"s corporate prayer, and even more profound when that prayer is prayed together, daily, for years and years. It will shape you as a group and unite you in a common theme, that of worshiping one greater than yourselves.
Consider it for yourself, and maybe for your family.
Our prayer is a short German table blessing, “Come dear lord and be our guest, bless what thou provided hast, Amen.”? You could update it to something like “Come dear lord and be our guest, bless everything that you have given us. Amen.”?
Start sowing these seeds of prayer. Generations to come will reap wonderful fruit if we do.
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Randall Friesen is a local husband and father who pastors Gateway Covenant Church. He writes regularly at randallfriesen.com
We have two of these prayers - said so many times without much thought. Still, when everyone is around the table, we wait, the prayer is recited and then we eat. When we are at one of the kids homes, they ask us to pray before eating although I doubt they do it much themselves. In a way it has become a way that the kids recognise our faith and acknowledge that it is a good thing. It is also a sign that they are getting it - when the table grace routine becomes important for them - or maybe I am simply clinging to hope unrealistically.
ReplyDeleteVery well said.
ReplyDelete(In my family, my grandpa -- 89 now -- still does most of the praying. One day when he is gone we will miss his "signature" ending: very passionate "in JESus' name" -- long pause -- "Amen". Sometimes we squeeze each other's hands to the rhythm of it. Immature, yes. But it's something we know very well.)
"In moments when considered deeply, it becomes holy, reverent, and true."
ReplyDeleteMy parents always did 'grace' before food - my memory of the things I felt made me not wish to use it when I left home and married. Guess it was another 'tradition' that I had to leave behind to find Jesus for me. If your family can find Jesus in this at times then that's excellent.
Yes, but when you pray, the heavens open up and God moves heaven and earth. I have learned so much about prayer being part of this circle of life that you have here.
ReplyDeleteI love prayer - it's the one constant star in my day to know whenever I come here there is a prayer waiting for me and other readers as well.
And I like to believe that sometime during your day that you pray for each one of us in that prayer room.
Like I told Micah, you are the coolest dad in Sask. And that matters to me.
Jeremy
I loved this post, Randall. Thank you. This post has inspired one from me as well.
ReplyDelete....so that's what we've been saying all these years :o)
ReplyDelete