What ever happened to sitting down to dinner at the table as a family? This is supposed to be a special bonding time for families. At the dinner table you can talk about what happened throughout your day. Does sitting down together at a dinner table and actually enjoying fried chicken and mashed potatoes sound foreign to you? Are you thinking, “Get real, this is the 21st century?”
We eat dinner in our cars now. As you pick up the children from childcare, you probably use a drive-through and get the usual chicken tenders. Did you share bonding conversation as you ate driving toward home? Did you teach your children table manners as you enjoyed the french fries and Diet Coke? How on earth did you ask the blessing in this rush?
If you can’t imagine family dinner time, think about how the early Shaker settlers would feel if they visited our homes today.
You may not even have a dinner table. Take a look at the following Shaker advice to children on behavior and table manners:
First in the morning, when you rise,
Give thanks to God, who well supplies.
Then to some proper place repair,
And wash your hands and face with care.
When at the table, you sit down,
Sit straight and trim, don’t laugh nor frown.
Then let the elder first begin,
And all unite, and follow him.
Potatoes, cabbage, turnip, beet,
And every kind of thing you eat.
When bread or pie you cut or break,
Touch only what you mean to take.
Pick up your crumbs where you eat,
Keep all things decent, clean, and neat.
Then straightly from the table walk,
Don’t stop to handle things or talk.
If we mean never to offend,
To every gift we must attend.
Our busy lifestyles give us challenges as we train our children. It is our responsibility to impress upon them good manners.
What an enormous privilege and responsibility we have in raising our children. Let us continually pray for God to give us the energy, patience, creativity and perseverance to train our children.
As we identify areas of instruction that our children need to work on, let us remember Deuteronomy 6:6-7.
Instructions from the Lord are to be upon our hearts.
We are to impress them upon our children, and talk about them when we walk along the road; when we lie down, and when we get up.