Try It! Tuesday- The Family Meal Table

Well, I am kind of making this a Try It Tuesday post, in conjunction with my Thursday Thoughts.... because I want to bring up something that is becoming very important to me and I am about to go on a journey...do you want to come?

God is taking me on a journey that all started with the Above Rubies study called:

The Family Meal Table ( the link will take you to their site where you can purchase this study)

First, since this is a sharing post, I figured I would tell you a little about where I came from, where I am now, and where I am going....

I linked my first ever post on here above, and would love for you to read that and see where I started on my journey to be a stay at home mom. When I began this blog, I truly felt like God had finally solidified my decision to stay at home and not feel pressure to work... EVEN if we were struggling financially. That was back in April...it is now June and God has consistently provided.

A lot of my transformation was taking a more pro-active role in every day happenings in the home, primarily family meals. I decided to start cooking more, not just baking cookies (which I still love), but to put my family on the right track health wise, starting with home cooking. I stopped purchasing anything boxed or packaged, and really began to develop a sense of ownership and responsibility towards not just my children's health, but mine and my husbands too.

That said, I began to make home cooked meals almost every night. Well, now that I have that down pretty good, God had to go and present this study to me... the Family Meal Table and Hospitality. I'll give you a little overview of how my family meal table goes down almost every night:

Around 4:00, I am half way through making dinner, and the kids are getting really antsy and wanting to have another snack, so I usually give in, put on a movie for them and finish making dinner. Around 5:00, dinner is ready and the kids are full from their snack ( Flop #1) while we wait for Dad to arrive home.

Once Dad arrives home, I tell everyone to sit down. During that 3 minutes time span, the 1 year old nearly loses it because we are making her get strapped into something, while also wanting to eat. The 2 year old doesn't stop talking to Dad because she hasn't seen him all day. I realize I told everyone to sit down and....duh, the table isn't set( Flop #2). So I quickly try to set the table, and get the food off the stove top while all of this chaos is happening. ( I hope I'm not scaring you :)

I finally sit down and the table and hurry to say, "Go ahead Brian and pray so we can eat." (Flop # 3- rushing prayer time) Brian hurriedly prays and we begin eating...

Within 3 minutes, the three year old is finished and wanting to be excused. Daddy is nowhere near relaxed because the meal seemed like we were rushing to be the first car in line for a Nascar race. I haven't even eaten yet, because I am playing who wants to eat more, me or baby...and for some reason, she always wins...

We end up practically jumping out of our seats to end the chaotic dinner and go do something that will de-stress us...like go to the pool (meanwhile, I have left all of the dishes, pots and pans in the sink to go do something fun)

So there is a typical night at our house...want to join? Probably not... this is where I feel I have a problem. If I want my house to not only be inviting and welcoming to my own family, but other families or friends, then I have to change our Family Meal Table.

I realize that because our children are so young, there's going to be some aspect of chaos, but I feel that we are not leaving room for God to come and join us at the table because we can't wait to finish the meal.

I learned in the study that Jesus always made a meal for people when he was about to tell them something important, or reveal something about Himself to them. Jesus thought mealtime was important! So must I! Over the next two months, I will be completing this study and hope you will join me, if not just reading my blog, but perhaps ordering the study yourself, or just sharing your thoughts, suggestions (b/c boy could I use them) or comments!

So the first step to making my meal time less chaotic and more God welcoming?

1. Set the Table ahead of Time and call your family in to sit down when the food is already on the table... seem easy? We'll see about that :)

Bless you All!!






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