Making Memories

     "I LOVE this!  This totally reminds me of when I was growing up in a family of five kids.  I would have sat there, Mark would be here, Christine over there . . .  I loved our supper times.  All the conversations happening over top of the other . . . "

     Our guest's face beamed as he spoke of memories from his childhood, over dinner one night -- words that were a gift to our children, as we shared a meal with he and his wife.  Grown now, he reminisced of the greatest moments of childhood, many that centered around the dinner table.  Every meal was an adventure . . . his siblings are now among his closest friends . . . words that painted a picture of beauty and love born from the chaos of the supper hour.

     Interestingly, after he and his wife went home, our children revisited the conversations over and over.  An indelible impression had been placed on our family's meal time -- an increased sense of value that had not been there before. 

     WHY?  Because our children were able to see past the clamor and realize the value we share amdist the chaos. 

     Isn't it hard to believe that while we wrestle with how to manage the cacophony of meal time, priceless memories are being embedded into our children's hearts and minds that will last a lifetime? 

      I recently came across a poem that heightened the worth of our family meals even further.  The fact that it was written almost 100 years ago adds even more beauty to its words, because it would have flown in the face of then-current opinions like, "Children are to be seen and not heard" or, "Speak only when spoken to". 

     Savour the words written from the heart of a father who loved his family and the babel more than the quiet and the order . . .

The Perfect Dinner Table

        By Edgar Guest (1925)

A table cloth that's slightly soiled
Where greasy little hands have toiled;
The napkins kept in silver rings,
And only ordinary things
From which to eat, a simple fare,
And just the wife and kiddies there,
And while I serve, the clatter glad
Of little girl and little lad
Who have so very much to say
About the happenings of the day.

Four big round eyes that dance with glee,
Forever flashing joys at me,
Two little tongues that race and run
To tell of troubles and of fun;
The mother with a patient smile
Who knows that she must wait awhile
Before she'll get a chance to say
What she's discovered through the day.
She steps aside for girl and lad
Who have so much to tell their dad.

Our manners may not be the best;
Perhaps our elbows often rest
Upon the table, and at times
That very worst of dinner crimes,
That very shameful act and rude
Of speaking ere you've downed your food,
Too frequently, I fear, is done,
So fast the little voices run.
Yet why should table manners stay
Those tongues that have so much to say?

At many a table I have been
Where wealth and luxury were seen,
And I have dined in halls of pride
Where all the guests were dignified;
But when it comes to pleasure rare
The perfect dinner table's where
No stranger's face is ever known:
The dinner hour we spend alone,
When little girl and little lad
Run riot telling things to dad.



     Suppers shared around the dining table are one of the few opportunities our children may have to interact with the whole family unit in a given day -- don't lose these precious opportunities.  Minor on manners and major on the gift --  children that WANT to be with us. Children that WILL NOT be children forever -- each meal is making a memory, so let's make it a great one!

"Do EVERYTHING in love."

I Corinthians 16:14