I just wanted to write about something today that I believe is an important aspect of our Home and thought I would share a bit about it.
We are big believers in the "Family Table" and have strived to implement it more consistently into our lives. The idea basically comes from growing up with parents who made it a rule that no matter what , each night we sat together as a family for dinner. Now this took some sacrifices and planning on my parent's part as they had a very busy Landscaping business and Dad had alot of men who worked under him and plenty of deadlines and big jobs to complete. Often Dad worked late in the night just to accomodate our Family time earlier in the evening. That is something I never really thought about or appreciated about my parents until now that I am a parent myself.. They MADE IT WORK. They just did. Most importantly, they valued us children and made us priority and to make sure they were the ones to "train us up" in the way we should go.
I remember we had a very long sturdy table and it was often a very full table, with not only us four children, but often neighborhood kids who were playing at our house who were invited to stay. My mother was a great cook and delighted in surprising Dad with new recipes she tried and raised us to be the most non-picky eaters mainly because of the variety she offereed and exposed us to as children.
Now I am not saying you need to be an amazing chef to enjoy this routine, it just brought that much more excitement when we could smell the aromas coming from Mom's kitchen while we were playing hide and seek downstairs.
When we were called to the table, the girls helped Mom to serve the dishes and the boys were responsible for filling the cups with drinks. We would sit down and Dad would sit at the end and it wasn't long before we were all sharing about our day. Halfway through our meal, Dad would start telling us stories or teaching us some moral principal and thinking back now, he often would relate it right to the events we had talked about already from that day. He had such a way of explaining things and was not only interesting but humorous. We learned so much from those family discussions and it brought Life to our home. We looked forward to what Dad and Mom would have in mind for our talks each night. This was also the time that Dad would say positive things over us and we grinned ear to ear, especially when it came to our turn. I have fond memories of learning valuable lessons at the Family Table.
As much as I have carried these memories through the years, I realize they were a starting point for me to continue on with the tradition. Now that we have a housefull of Children and many personalities developing it has been interesting at our own Family Table. We really enjoy getting to know each child and teaching them how to interact, take turns, share and be mindful of their sibling's feelings. It poses a challenge as well, especially with toddlers and preschoolers to teach them to sit quietly even when they are done their meal.
Eventually they get used to it and even babble away adding their two cents in. The children all laugh , especially now when Hannah does it.
It is amazing how much our children will pour out their hearts (even the Boys!) when we give them the oppurtunity. Many disagreements between siblings have been sorted out too at meal time. Often we will give them a verse, a quote, a poem and ask them to comment and even the young ones like to particiapate.
I found a great book that we have used as a guide lately in our family discussions and would recommend it. It is called "Gather Round the Dinner Fable" by Steven James (Honor Books Publishing company) It starts off with an idea, an activity or object lesson and discussion starters. Sometimes as parents it is not always easy to come up with exact topics or discussions, and we have found this book is helping us do just that!
Well I hope that by sharing with you all a bit of insight into our Home, it may bless and encourage you to implement something like this in your own home. It doesnt have to be anything too extravagant, just simple. What is important to children (we have noticed) is the Quality Time spent with them, getting to know them and sharing lifelong lessons with them is something they do cherish and look forward to!
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