Family/Dinner Prayers

JoNightshade · Feb 20, 2008

A post in another thread referred to a "dinner prayer." My husband and I pray over dinner every night, but it tends to be kind of repetitious. I was struck with the idea of actually writing out a dinnertime prayer.

So I was wondering, do you pray out loud with your family? Is your "mealtime prayer" (or equivalent) always the same, a kind of formula, or is it always spontaneous?

If you have a mealtime prayer or remember one it would be cool to share it.

stormie · Feb 20, 2008

Ever since I was little, I've said the usual blessing: Bless us oh Lord, and these they gifts, for which we are about to receive, from thy bounty, through Christ our Lord. Amen.

My husband and I taught that to our sons. They're older now, but we still say that prayer before dinner. Only problem is, our sons saw Christmas Vacation with Chevy Chase and the character Aunt Bethany. When Aunt Bethany is asked to say Grace, she first says, "Grace? Oh, she died years ago." Then her husband says, "No, the blessing!" So Aunt Bethany says, "I pledge allegiance to the flag...."

Guess what my sons now like to do when we get ready to say Grace before dinner?! (Once they're calm, we do say the blessing.)

My mother-in-law, on the other hand, says a short improvised prayer of thanks for the food and those gathered around the table. Spontaneous and very nice. For instance, "We thank you, Lord, for the food before us, and for the family we have gathered here. Amen." Well, hers is better than that!

Sarita · Feb 20, 2008

Growing up, my dad would always say the same prayer at dinner time. It was his own variation of the Lord's Prayer. Something like : Thank you for the daily bread that you always give us. Please forgive us our sins, and help us to forgive those that sin against us. Help us always to praise you and hold your name dear. In Jesus name, Amen.

A few years ago, my nephew (his grandchild) told him that it was boring to say the same thing at every meal. LOL. He mixes it up for family dinners now.

Pat~ · Feb 20, 2008

Growing up, my dad always said the same prayer (an original). But while we pray at dinner, we try not to pray the same prayer each time. It's just a personal preference, I suppose, but I think God would wonder why we'd be saying the same thing to Him each night. I don't have the same dinner conversation with my husband each night!

Cranky · Feb 20, 2008

This is the one my boys say over dinner (more often than not):

God our Father,
Hear me speak
Bless this food
We shall eat
Bless our friends
Family, too

Most of all, Lord we thank You

Amen

My grandfather always does an improvised grace for big family meals.

And I used to also say the "Bless us" one quoted above as a kid.

Death Wizard · Feb 20, 2008

Here's a typical Buddhist dinner prayer:

(serving the food)

In this food I see clearly
the presence of the entire universe
supporting my existence.

(looking at the plate of food)

All living beings are struggling
for life. May they all have enough food
to eat today.

(just before eating)

The plate is filled with food.
I am aware that each morsel
is the fruit
of much hard work
by those who produced it.

(beginning to eat)

With the first taste, I promise
to practice loving kindness.
With the second, I promise
to relieve the suffering of others.
With the third,
I promise to see others' joy as my own.
With the fourth,
I promise to learn the way of nonattachment and equanimity.

(after the meal)

The plate is empty.
My hunger is satisfied.
I vow to live for the benefit
of all living beings.

Ziljon · Feb 20, 2008

Wow! This deserves repeating.

deathwizard said:
Here's a typical Buddhist dinner prayer:

(serving the food)
In this food I see clearly
the presence of the entire universe
supporting my existence.

(looking at the plate of food)

All living beings are struggling
for life. May they all have enough food
to eat today.

(just before eating)

The plate is filled with food.
I am aware that each morsel
is the fruit
of much hard work
by those who produced it.

(beginning to eat)

With the first taste, I promise
to practice loving kindness.
With the second, I promise
to relieve the suffering of others.
With the third,
I promise to see others' joy as my own.
With the fourth,
I promise to learn the way of nonattachment and equanimity.

(after the meal)

The plate is empty.
My hunger is satisfied.
I vow to live for the benefit
of all living beings.

Death Wizard · Feb 20, 2008

Ziljon said:
Wow! This deserves repeating.

How kind of you to say!

dadburnett · Feb 20, 2008

Saying grace feeds my soul. For me, offering a blessing - giving thanks for something before beginning that something. It is not about the food or or whatever something we are blessing or giving thanks for. Unless we are afraid of eating contaminated food or it has been prepared by a really lousy cook

, food has no need of a blessing. The mealtime blessing is not even about our body receiving and properly utilizing the foods we eat, that’s the way the Creator designed us to work; unless of course there is some physical disability that constrains our proper utilization of food. I think that saying grace is not about blessing something, it is about giving thanks. It seems to me to be about our attitude and is intended to be a reminder of the who and what we really are. It is an acknowledgement of our relationship with the Creator and is recognition of our blessings received through His provision. (Although I may have earned and acquired the food by the sweat of my brow, that earning was made possible by the Creator of all.) And, for me those blessings include gratitude for all those who have in anyway contributed to the availability and preparation of the food I’m about to eat. It is for me recognition of God as my source and as being the underlying cause of my supply.
(Another grace I sometimes overlook is that of not overeating, giving thanks for the will to eat and drink wisely – to eat for nourishment, good health and healing, not just for pleasure.)

III · Feb 21, 2008

Praying with the family is probably the biggest area where I've totally dropped the ball. We used to pray before meals and bedtime when the kids were younger but it always ended up with someone complaining, someone fighting, someone making jokes, someone crying and me eventually losing my patience and saying "okay, that's enough, just go to bed. If you guys can't get along and sit still for ten minutes out of the day then I don't have the patience for this."

Now, life is so busy in the evenings that we only have a full family dinner a few times a week. The prayer is always preceeded by, "Okay hold hands. Hold hands. Johnny, hold her hand. Not just a finger, hold her hand. Okay Brooke, stop squeezing. I don't care if her hand is dirty, just hold it. Okay no playing around." Followed by the fastest prayer I can get out, followed by a round of tattling of who did what during the prayer, followed by a half hour of open-mic comedy and magic tricks on how to sneak food from the plate into the trash can.

Somebody please tell me you're in the same boat.

johnnysannie · Feb 21, 2008

stormie said:
Ever since I was little, I've said the usual blessing: Bless us oh Lord, and these they gifts, for which we are about to receive, from thy bounty, through Christ our Lord. Amen.

QUOTE]

The same blessing is from my own childhood and I've taught it to my children. After we've said it, though, we also add specific prayer requests and thanks, giving every member of the family the chance to chime in. Some are simple - like the kids may pray to get an "A" on test but we pray for family member's health, people we know, and thank God for things He has done.

auntybug · Feb 21, 2008

Growing up - it was the same as stormie's ... I'm not sure when we stopped.

Now we've adapted hubby's family's..

"Come Lord Jesus be our guest, and let these gifts to us be blessed."

When we are with his family - they add:

"Give thanks to the the Lord for he is good, his Mercy endures forever,"

D.J. · Feb 21, 2008

Prayer growing up tended to be said by my dad but every once in a while one of us would say it. It varied somewhat but it was mainly offering thanks and asking that our food would give us the strength and nourishment needed to glorify Him.

My hubby and I take turns praying or rather the one who feels lead to pray. We usually include thanks for the day and what we have accomplished thanks to Him. We also add in particular people we know need a special prayer. We try to pray for the blessings God has in store for us too.

At holidays, we change up who prays depending upon who is there. We pray to thank God for the real meaning of the holiday and our family being able to spend time together, etc. The main thing is, we speak from the heart.

L.Jones · Feb 21, 2008

auntybug said:
Growing up - it was the same as stormie's ... I'm not sure when we stopped.

Now we've adapted hubby's family's..

"Come Lord Jesus be our guest, and let these gifts to us be blessed."

When we are with his family - they add:

"Give thanks to the the Lord for he is good, his Mercy endures forever,"

Cool. We have used the Come Lord Jesus for the regular family as we got older - but as kids we each took turns saying a blessing and could say what we wanted (this was good because with 3 of us we would sit there at the table wriggling hoping WE would get the honor over the other 2).
I usually went with a basic but we could sometimes sneak in a "Rub a dub dub, thanks for the grub, yea God!"

annie jones - The Barefoot Believers - Mar 08

dobiwon · Feb 21, 2008

I may have been the source of the OPs reference to a dinner prayer. If so, or if not (I guess it doesn't matter), since my kids are all out with families of their own, when my wife and I eat, we generally say the same grace. It begins with the old standard "Bless us, O Lord, and these thy gifts..." but she adds a series of petitions asking God to watch over our children, their families, close friends, etc. She ends with an invocation to "send your angels to surround them and protect them in their time of need." By the time she gets to the end of the litany, I'm usually thinking "and please Lord, keep our food warm until the end of the prayer", but I'm too smart to say it out loud. BTW, this is the time when I add in my mind the intentions requested by people here on AW.

All that goes out the window when my grandchildren are over. Then, each one who's old enough says the grace she was taught in religious ed. class or pre-school, or wherever.

heyjude · Feb 21, 2008

III, just tell the kids they don't have to hold hands. That solves one small problem.... one at a time, right?

We do a short prayer before meals. Short is all you can do with a 2-year-old boy. But he puts his hands up to cover his eyes and peeks through them to try and see God while we pray.

stormie · Feb 21, 2008

III said:
The prayer is always preceeded by, "Okay hold hands. Hold hands. Johnny, hold her hand. Not just a finger, hold her hand. Okay Brooke, stop squeezing. I don't care if her hand is dirty, just hold it. Okay no playing around." Followed by the fastest prayer I can get out, followed by a round of tattling of who did what during the prayer, followed by a half hour of open-mic comedy and magic tricks on how to sneak food from the plate into the trash can.

Somebody please tell me you're in the same boat.

Yep. Even when my sons were little. As I said, now it's occasionally an "Aunt Bethany" moment from Christmas Vacation.

We do have about four nights out of seven when the prayer is able to be said with respect.

Cranky · Feb 21, 2008

heyjude said:
III, just tell the kids they don't have to hold hands. That solves one small problem.... one at a time, right?

We do a short prayer before meals. Short is all you can do with a 2-year-old boy. But he puts his hands up to cover his eyes and peeks through them to try and see God while we pray.

LOL! That's really cute.

And Trey, I don't make my boys hold hands, either. They just clasp them together as I taught them to, and that works great. My three year old won't hold hands with anyone except me, and then only if he wants something, and he's bringing me to it, lol.

I'd rather get the prayer said than have Monday Night Raw at the dinner table. That's what I'd have if I tried to make them hold hands. I do have to deal with the magically disappearing food, however.

I'll let you know when I've worked out a counterspell, lol.

windyrdg · Feb 21, 2008

I've said Stormie's prayer all my life...learned it as a child. We now modify a little by adding "We thank you for the blessings of this day and ask you to bless all family members, those with us in the flesh and those with us in spirit. Then, if we have special intentions we add them. Otherwise we eat.

Edward Hays in one of his books suggest that instead of closing your eyes when you say Grace keep them open. Look at the food's color and variety, take in its aroma, anticipate its taste and be truly grateful for all that God has given.

Roger J Carlson · Feb 21, 2008

III said:
Somebody please tell me you're in the same boat.

I can honestly say that my children never fought among themselves. My daughter was an only child, and that would have just been wierd.

When she was little we would pray with her every night. When she got older, this sort of slipped. But between the ages of 14 and 18, we had a lot of trouble with her, and we began to pray with her again at bedtime. She might have thought it was lame, but she never complained about it. And you know what? It helped!

swove · Feb 21, 2008

My wife and I say a prayer before every evening meal basically we thank God for seeing through another day safe we thank him for our health and the fact we are both working, we pray for all our family and friends and for all those in need, and always end it praying that all will come to know him. Of course when there is someone with special needs we always add a special prayer for them and I always add a prayer for our troops that they stay safe and out of harms way.

askeladd · Feb 21, 2008

Growing up, we mostly said the "Come Lord Jesus" prayer, generally at special occasions. My grandfather, however, had his favorite Norwegian table prayer that we used in later years (some people sing this to "Old Hundredth"):

I Jesu navn
går vi til bords
at spise, drikke på ditt ord
deg, Gud til ære, oss til gavn,
så får vi mat i Jesu navn, amen.

(In Jesus' name we go to the table
to eat and drink upon your word
to God's glory and for our benefit
thus we receive food in Jesus' name, amen.)

Now with my own two kiddos, I'm teaching them an easier Norwegian table prayer that can also be sung:

Å du som metter liten fugl
Velsign vår mat, å Gud, amen.

(O you who feeds the little bird
Bless our food, o God, amen.)

It also has an after-meal version (I've not taught them that, yet):

For helse, glede, daglig brød
vi takker deg, å Gud, amen.

(For health, happiness, daily bread
we thank you, o God, amen.)

HoosierCowgirl · Feb 22, 2008

We take turns. Sometimes the kids pray, sometimes DH, sometimes me. The kids' are usually the best. At family gatherings, Grandpa usually thanks God for his watchful care over us (a biggie given that we are farmers and something's always breaking down or getting loose) and that He will keep us in the center of his will.

Times when we think this might be the last time we are all together usually make me pay better attention. For instance, some of the in-laws went to Russia for several years at a time. Another relative is hospitalized with Alzheimers. And so on and so forth.

sassandgroove · Feb 22, 2008

man I lost it. If you hadn't asked....

Ok so this was a wonderful moment. When my cousin was 4 she said grace at Thanksgiving. She just looked around the room and thanked God for whatever came into her view. "Thank you God for the broccoli, the turkey, Uncle Bob, the gravy, Aunt Sue, my sister, the sweet potatoes..."and so on. It was great because it was sincere.

I joke and say, "Bless the vegetables, bless the meat, bless me, let's eat." But I sincerely mean Thanks God and he gets me.

My aunt didn't believe we should have memorized prayers, but tended to always say pretty much the same thing, ending her prayer with, "Bless it to us." I took that to mean something like "Bless it to the nourishment of our bodies."

There is a song I liked from summer camp:
God is Good
God is great
Let us thank him for our food
We're gonna thank him
morning,noon, and night
we thank Him becuase
He's out of sight
Amen.

I guess that was supposed to be hip.

Now when Mr.Groove and I do pause to say grace, I tend to just thank the Lord for our many blessings and anything that comes to mind at the moment.

If you hadn't asked I could totally recite the prayer I said most everynight of my childhood, but man, right now it escapes me.

ETA THis is it, but it seems like it should be longer.
God is Great, God is GOOD, let us thank Him for our food. By His hands we all are fed. Give us Lord, our daily bread. In Jesus Name, Amen.
My mom said I held that land speed record for saying it.

Roger J Carlson · Feb 23, 2008

One of my favorite memories of gatherings at my grandparent's home was the song we would sing as grace:

Be present at our table Lord,
Be here and everywhere adored.
These mercies bless and grant that we
May feast in Paradise with Thee.
Amen.

Family/Dinner Prayers

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