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Did you grow up in a home where a prayer was said before meals? In many homes, gathering around a table for a meal has become reserved for special occasions. The rest of the time, each member of the household operates on their own schedule, “grabbing food on the run.” The pandemic has increased the chances of families eating together and, hopefully, praying together as well.
In the home where I was raised, we took turns reciting from memory the same rhyming prayer at every meal: “Come Lord Jesus, be our guest. Let this food to us be blessed. Amen.” The prayer became something to rattle off before we could get down to the business of eating, and I determined that when I had my own spouse and kids, we would pray from the heart instead.
But guess what? While our mealtime prayers may have begun off-the-cuff, over time they all began to sound strangely rote, without the rhyme. Something along the lines of “Dear Jesus, thank you for this food. Please bless it to our bodies’ use. Amen.” Every. Single. Time.
I began to realize that just because a prayer doesn’t rhyme, it’s not automatically more meaningful. And just because it does, doesn’t mean it can’t be heartfelt. What’s going on inside makes all the difference.
I put out a query on social media, asking friends whether they grew up with mealtime prayers and how those prayers sounded. So many memories surfaced!
Turns out a lot of families prayed the same prayer as mine. One told me the poem is not even theologically sound. (I think they likely referred to the part about asking Jesus to “be our guest” when he is already everywhere, all the time.) Some added an additional line before the Amen: “By His hand we all are fed, thank you, God, for daily bread.” I like that because it acknowledges our source of provision and includes the element of gratitude missing in the shorter version.
When I started Grade One, our teacher, Mrs. Jenny Cooper, always led us in a prayer before we ate our lunch at our desks. “God is great, God is good, let us thank him for our food. Amen.” She pronounced “food” to rhyme with “good” which irritated me to no end as a sophisticated six-year-old. Now I marvel that we prayed in a public school at all.
My friend Iris prayed that one in her home as well, but they added this: “And with it, Lord,
Thy blessing give; Into Thy glory may we live.”
Iris’s family used another one which certainly covers the point of a mealtime prayer: “Lord, bless this food which now we take, and feed our souls with the bread of eternal life for Jesus’ sake. Amen.” I love how that one reflects Jesus’ words, “I am the bread of life.”
Some of my friends grew up praying the same prayer we did, but in German. I may be butchering the spelling, but does this bring memories to the surface for you? “Komm, Herr Jesus, sei Du unser Gast, und segne was Du uns bescheret hast.” Two or three friends shared that one, while another said just seeing it brought tears to her eyes, as she could almost hear her dad’s precious voice.
A couple of people told me they said these rote prayers for every day, but they got fancier and more eloquent when company came.
And let’s not forget the more irreverent offerings such as, “Good bread, good meat, good Lord, let’s eat!”
Or “Over the lips and past the gums, look out stomach, here she comes!”
Sounds more like a lesson on the digestive system than a prayer.
Next week we’ll take a look at more mealtime prayers and some good reasons to pray them.
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