Altered Prayer

Well, we have been back in Texas now for 3 or so weeks and all is well.  We are really enjoying the weather.  The kids are enjoying the neighborhood and making friends.  The dogs even seem happier save for McKinney who is still full of puppy-like enthusiasm and is oblivious to most of her surroundings.  Everything still is in that new phase (house, neighborhood, church, friends, higher speed internet, etc) so I took this opportunity to introduce a few new things in our family life.  One of these new things involved mealtime prayer.

On day a while back during church service, our (Kokomo) pastor had mentioned the concept of praying after a meal rather than before it.  He is a Jewish roots kind of guy so I am sure that this concept has its origins somewhere in Judaism.  There are not many food prayers in the Bible per se (probably because there are not many stories that have their setting around mealtime).  I guess my point is that we have always prayed as a family before a meal out of tradition rather than any deep religious study that I did.  Over the years it just became a habit I suppose and I had concerns that our family (especially our children) were not getting the full meaning so I mixed things up a bit.

Let me say first off that it just feels downright weird eating first without praying.  We each find ourselves sitting with our food in front of us waiting for something to happen when we realize that it is ok just to begin eating.  Once we have a bite or two in our mouths all is well and we enjoy the rest of the meal like we normally would.  Then the end of the meal comes.

First of all there is the timing of it all.  Each of us needs to remain seated at the table until the last person (usually my son) is done eating.  We might get up to rinse off our dishes and place them in the sink or dishwasher but after that we return to our seats at the dining room table and await the “after the meal'” prayer.  As awkward as it feels here at home, eating out at a restaurant is doubly awkward.  I can just imagine the looks we get as people see empty plates in front of us as we take the time to bow our heads and give thanks.

This change of pattern has caused us to forget praying altogether a time or two thus far but I suppose that is understandable.  Old habits die hard.  The kids have prayed before the meal since they were old enough to grasp the concept of prayer or thankfulness so this is a bigger change for them than me (I spent the first 20+ years of my life never praying with my family, before meals or otherwise).  At any rate, it has accomplished one thing.  We do concentrate on being thankful more and I suppose that makes this experiment a success.  We will see if we revert back to our former ways or not.

Jon