If It Is Time To Eat, It is Time To Pray!
When I was a child, my family taught me to pray over my food! We prayed over meals, snacks, you name it, if it were food or beverages we prayed over it! I even distinctly remember praying over the water I drank in elementary school at the water fountain!!
Whether we were at our cozy kitchen table for regular meals, the formal dining room table for Sunday dinner or holiday meals or in front of the TV as we watched the news, the Harder family prayed before we ate! If we were in a restaurant with waiters hurrying by, it didn’t matter, we prayed. I have kept up the tradition. I genuinely would not enjoy a meal if I didn’t thank the Lord for the food I was about to eat.
When I sold my home and moved to a retirement community, I was astonished to learn that I was the only person in the communal dining room who prayed before she ate! One waiter even commented that he had never seen anyone pray before eating a meal!
I looked up praying before a meal on the Internet and was shocked to learn that most people never pray before they eat. When asked why people didn’t pray before eating, they said they didn’t need to do so!! Why? Well for one thing, there is better refrigeration and people don’t get food poisoning as often.
For me refrigeration or food safety has nothing to do with why I pray! I want to thank the Good Lord, for giving me my daily bread! The internet stated that 814 million people go to bed hungry every single night of the world! Think of going to bed hungry EVERY NIGHT! How grateful we should be for the plentiful meals we enjoy every day! And we don’t even bother to say thank you to the Provider of our Abundance!
Love, from your friend Hope
