I work very hard to safeguard our family dinner hour each evening, otherwise there are a hundred other good things that try to compete with this precious window of opportunity to provide daily nourishment and nurturing of body and spirit for my family.
Following our evening family prayer, we always sit around the table for dinner. We put away phones and all types of media distractions.
There are a couple of things I do to make sure we gather together around the table for meal time every night:
First, the food is delicious and nutritious.
There are exceptions to this, I will be truthful! Sometimes the food turns out yucky. Sometimes I don't plan ahead very well and have to pull something together very last-minute. And sometimes, it's probably not nutritious either. But for the most part, I spend quality time planning and preparing meals to make sure my family enjoys what I place before them and expect them to eat :).
Second, it is enjoyable.
I know this sounds very simple, but it's not always easy. We are a work in progress. But, overall, we all enjoy our time eating together. I try to make it a positive, happy time. When my children grow up and look back on their years at home, I want this to stand out as a wonderful memory for them.
This is our time to focus on each other -- we laugh, we ask questions, we discuss all kinds of issues, current events, and things to plan and look forward to; we give compliments and sometimes counsel; we teach and we testify of Christ and talk about what we did to share His love throughout the day; we discuss our "highlights" -- what we liked best about the day, and sometimes we talk about the things we did that were embarrassing, or made us feel sad or upset or frustrated. Meal time is a safe time for everyone to share.
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