Gathering around the Table

Today, I would like to talk about having a family dinner time.
Is this something that your family does?
It is easy for families to turn to other things as their "family" time.

 
Clean up the dinner mess, and plop down on the couch for some TV time?
Or does everyone go in their different direction after dinner?
Or is mom always left with the dinner mess, while all the children scatter away to do whatever they want to do in the evening time?
As a family we have many choices to make. How will our evenings look?
In the past I have taught in the public school here and there. When the topic of dinner at the table come up in a story or in a piece of text, I would always ask the students what dinner time looked like for their family. Boy was it heart breaking!!

It sure made me change my attitude about dinner time. 
So what, it's just dinner time. But no, to children it does mean a lot!!
Many children would share with the class about how their family rarely eats at the kitchen table. They would share different ways they have dinner. Some would eat in the living room around the TV. Some would not really eat dinner but just have snacks. Some would even be allowed to take their plate to their bedroom. Mind you, we live in a very rural area of WV and much poverty happens here. 
What would the LORD have us do for evening dinner time? 
I believe if he were to talk into my home, he would love nothing more than to see us gathering around the table talking and eating our meal. No TV. No noise. No phones or radios, toys or homework at the table. Just the family and food. 

The children expressed to me after they shared their home life, that they would love to sit around the table with mom and dad. Mind you, this was a year in Kindergarten. Little 5 year olds, yearning for that time with their family. How I would love to have had them into my home for a sit down meal. 
Eating in a car fast food is no place either. On occasion when we pick up dinner after Sunday evening church, we will bring it home and sit at the kitchen table with it. 

Be careful of how you choose share your family meals. 
Many evenings, my husband is not home at 5:30 and wont return from work until 8pm. He has expressed that is too late for the children to wait on him, and so we eat at our normal 5:30 when he is gone to work. Even with him gone, we all sit at the table. 
Even if I have one child at home because the others have went for an evening with their grandparents, we still sit at the kitchen table. 
Look at them. Talk to them. Share stories, and talk about the day. 
I learn so much from my older boys days, at the dinner table. It is a place that everyone opens up. 
It really does mean a lot to the children and I'm sure it will brighten your life as well. 
**I share with you our pictures of picking strawberries last summer. Such a family fun experience. I thought we had WAY to many when we went to the cash register. I was nervous this was going to be expensive. It turned out to be ok, and I thought how will we eat all of these. We brought them home and as a family cut the tops and washed them. Put them in freezer bags. They didn't last 2 months :)