“God is gracious. God is good.
Let us thank Him for our food.
In Jesus precious name,
AMEN!”
Let us thank Him for our food.
In Jesus precious name,
AMEN!”
Before every meal, we pray this simple, rhythmic prayer with the kiddos. Since we’ve been here the last three weeks with our Starfish, several of them have become accustomed to the tune – and it’s quite an exciting event to pray before a meal. Perhaps this is due to our enthusiasm and fun faces in rallying them to join – or maybe just the fact that it has a catchy beat.
Regardless of why, the kids absolutely love it – and several of them are picking up words and actually starting to speak them with us. It’s brilliant. Clasping their hands together, they shake them in time with each spoken word, eyes bright and wide, lips mumbling sounds not yet distinguishable in intelligible verbiage. This doesn’t matter to them though because the end is like a grand finale where everyone shouts “AMEN!” Usually we have some varying translations like “a-pen” or “a-behn” or “a-mein” or “AHH!” Some of them just giggle out loud or grunt in agreement.
My favorite part of all comes a little after this part. The first few bites of food are swallowed, people are enjoying their meal and one by one they start humming portions of the prayer, clasping their hands together – taking liberty this time to repeat the “Amen” part many times. Our resident mealtime prayer warrior is, you guessed it, the PROFESSOR. Feeding him is an experience in and of it self. He mimics anything and everything I do – including dancing – and his favorite thus far is praying.
Thinking about this the other day I realized this simple act by these kids who likely have no idea what they are doing reminded me how important it is to “give thanks at all times, to rejoice always.” Hypothetically speaking, they don’t just thank God before they eat, but they thank Him the whole time they’re eating…I love it!!
