How has Primal affected your Dinner Prayer? page

[Knifegill]

I used to have to add "somehow" to "may this food bless our bodies" and now I don't, because I know it will. What about you? Has your dinner prayer changed?

[OneDeltaTenTango]

We have never done a dinner prayer. But as my daughter, now 3 1/2, began speaking, we decided to start a tradition of holding hands and each talking about something we are thankful for. My wife and I try to steer at least some of it to our food. Yesterday it was fresh arugula from the garden (first harvest of the year). Often it is for the wild salmon or beef from the wild range 1/2 cow in the freezer. My daughter usually gets it.

[sbhikes]

This is the one my dad would say:
Come Lord Jesus be our guest, let this food to us be blessed. Amen.

The other one my dad would say:
Rub-a-dub-dub. Thanks for the grub. Yay God.

[magicmerl]

Well, now that we're primal for some reason we eat desserts more..... (bananas and whipped cream)

The kids like to sing the second verse of 'grace' just before dessert is served up

[Dr. Bork Bork]

Our dinner prayer has not changed. We thank the Lord for the food we have been provided and ask that it bless us. Grace usually says "so we can be happy and healthy"

[Rasputina]

My paternal grandmother is a reverend, as is my mother-in-law. My mom is over-the-top- Southern Baptist, My sister is Pentecostal. They all have WIDELY differing beliefs, but they all want to hold hands around the table and say "thanks to God," but only during holidays. I don't know why, but it makes me cringe. I DO NOT HOLD HANDS. I think it feels forced. I never hold hands or pray in public.

My maternal grandparents, who both have Native American grandparents, feel the same way I do. MY relationship to this thing I feel is God, has nothing to do with holding hands and making rushed thanks in it's honor. If I THINK about where my food comes from and how it got there, or what seemingly magical force enacted upon evolution for me to be able to be at the top of the food chain and eat this food, I believe that's enough. The awe is enough thanks. I thank "Lion King" circle of life and whatever factor decided that I wasn't going to be the cooked-goose in this flesh. stop making me hold hands and pray out-loud. It sucks. I always want to leave. *Anxiety and cerebral overload, at its finest*

[Crabbcakes]

I hate the "holding hands" thing, too. My mother-in-law does that - and to make matters worse, sometimes she will get the singing bug and we all have to sing grace for our supper whilst hanging on. We do it for her, since we do not live in each other's pockets, therefore it is only a few times per year, but we really dislike it all the same.

Probably a half-dozen times a day, I just naturally have a little pause in my day, just for myself, not that anyone would notice, but I am just deeply appreciating whatever has struck me at the moment, and I mentally say thanks. Some moments are more profound than others but all are sincere. Decently often I mention the things I am thankful for and humbled by to whoever caused them because I don't want to bottle appreciation up - it should be shared whenever the timing is right and/or appropriate. My kids see this from me, and sometimes share their thankful moments with me - and that makes me thankful all over again.

Mostly, we show respect for the food we eat by not wasting it. We either eat it, store it, or compost scraps for the garden, and I am big on getting smaller portions for the plate but dishing up seconds or thirds or so and being able to finish rather than heaping stuff on the plate and then having to leave a third of it. I am getting to hate buffets for that reason - the waste on others' plates - regardless of what I think of the "quality" of the food.

[zoebird]

at the waldorf schools, they sing before meals/table time, and so we used that verse: sunshine on the apple trees, thank you for the food we eat.

[Crabbcakes]

Zoebird - my cousins went to Waldorf schools (Loheland Stiftung, 36093 Kuenzell, Germany). I am assuming you have children who did/do attend? Sometime, I would like to know how you get around the concept of grains being the superior food thing from Steiner. I own books in German on this topic.

(Sorry for taking a bender off-topic... otherwise I have wonderful memories of their festivals, find the architecture breathtaking, and am still intrigued by many of Steiner's ideas.)

[Lynna]

I'm a heathen. I don't pray.