Table Talk
Our family dinner conversations were losing ground with short answers of “fine” and “good.” Extra activities were pulling us away from that special time around the dinner table. And as our children get older, it seems that you really have to work to get in those good conversations going.
So in asking the Lord how I could make our family dinner a little better, I was given by the Holy Spirit 3 different questions:
- What made you laugh?
- What challenged you? (Frustrated? Angry?) How did you handle this challenge?
- How did you help someone?
Interestingly, our conversations increased over time and the children came to the dinner table readily to share about their day.
Please share with your children your answers to Table Talk. It is a good teaching lesson for them. You can ask your other children for suggestions on how to handle a challenge. Remember, laughter is the best medicine!
You will also find that there are some extra creative Table Talk suggestions that have been included.
The next help that I was encouraged to do was to pray for my children.
Praying the 31 Biblical Virtues for Your Kids:
I think you and I could spend a great deal of time on the benefits of prayer and quality time with the Lord. Here is just a sample of how prayer helped me.
Prayer provided:
- wisdom and discernment
- joy
- encouragement
- strength and energy
- the anchor I needed for my children to see that God was with me!
Looking at the Praying 31 Biblical Virtues, there is one allocated for each day of the month. However, I found that keeping up with 31 virtues and changing for a new one each day was too much. So I use one virtue for each week to pray for my children. You might want to bring the weekly virtue to discuss at the dinner table.
For example: Salvation is the first virtue listed for day one. The scripture provided was what I would pray for my children.
Lord, let salvation spring up within _____________, that he/she may obtain the salvation that is only in Christ Jesus, with eternal glory.
Or if your child is already saved,
Lord, thank you for calling _________ to You. I pray that he/she will hold onto this precious gift of You as he/she grows up.
Another interesting note, that while I pray for these virtues for my children, they just happen to be good virtues for me to work on too!
By Sherry Long