Three Questions to Ask at the Dinner Table
What if there were three questions you could ask around the dinner table that could change your families faith life? Would you ask them?
Faith @ Home is one my “things.” It is one of the things I write about, think about, muddle around with.
It is something I speak on, teach on, encourage others to try.
And as a Minister to Children, Youth, and Families, it is part of my job to figure out how to encourage families to share their faith at home.
But sometimes I feel like a complete failure and fraud.
Because sometimes – sometimes often – I am not sure if I am doing a good “faith @ home” job myself.
I am not sure if my kids are connecting to the Story of God in our home life as much as I would hope.
Maybe I am being too hard on myself, but maybe not.
The truth is probably somewhere in the middle.
You see, despite what my “thing” is, I am no different from anyone else.
I struggle with the same fears and questions you struggle with.
I fall off the Slow Living wagon and find that I am knee-deep in distractions and busyness.
Too often I find that I am too scattered, full of good intentions, and half-baked follow-thru.
I say yes to too many things, and I have too many ideas, I want to do too much, and instead, overwhelmed and worn out, I do nothing.
So, my excuses, my reasons, for not celebrating our faith at home more often are not exceptional.
They are ordinary. They are probably not that different from yours.
They sound like
No time. Who has time for one more “to do?” One more project to try? Craft to make? Book to read? I want to do all the things.. But. I. Just. Can’t.
Abundance of awkwardness. If you have teenagers you know what I am talking about. “Geez mom? Really? God stuff again?”
Lack of inspiration. Dinner prayers, the Advent wreath, maybe some Jesus music at bedtime or in the car, (unless, again – teenagers.) What other ways are there to share faith without going into Martha-Stewartesque overdrive?
Changing family dynamics. As kids grow and the family dynamics change so do the dynamics of incorporating faith at home. What a two-year old can relate to and what a fifteen year will connect with are both the same and different. Much like an infants feeding patterns, just when you think you have it figured out, it goes and changes when you aren’t looking.
Recently, during a 2:30 am panic attack about all of this, fresh out of can-do spirit, I hit upon an idea.
This summer, as part of our Homespun Summer, I am throwing out all the big faith@home plans and the spirit-killing to-do list and trying something a little simpler.
This summer,I am going to try a 3 Question Experiment, and I would love for you to try it with me.
This an experiment in practicing faith @ home without having to buy a single craft supply, or dinner ingredient, or reading a single passage out of a book. Did you hear that? NO SUPPLIES. NO PLANNING. NO STRESS.
All you will need is the ability to ask three questions of your family every day.
This summer, every day during lunch or dinner – be it around our table, in the car on the way to camp, or out in a restaurant, consider asking the following three questions of each other:
How did you glorify God today?
How did you enjoy God today?
How did you see God today?
The first two questions were inspired The Westminster Shorter Catechism which begins:
1. What is the chief end of man?
A. Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever.
I have always loved this question and answer because so much is bound up in it.
In fact, when my kids ask me “What is the meaning of life?” This is always the answer I give them.
And I make sure to emphasis both parts. Because sometimes we get so caught up in the first half of the answer, that we miss the second half.
And the answer is the whole thing.
Glorifying God without enjoying Him is joyless, and smacks of legalism.
Enjoying God without glorifying Him seems full of selfishness and entitlement.
But to both glorify and enjoy God, is to live out one of the most beautiful images in scripture, that ‘In him we live and move and have our being’;
And at the end of the day – that is what I want for my children.
To be woven with God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, their identify as Beloved firmly secure.
Yes, I want them to know the heritage of their faith, yes, I want them to have both a corporate and personal relationship with scripture, yes, I want them to find ways to pray that mean something to them, but if you asked me to narrow it down to one wish above all others, I would have to say, that what I wish and pray for them is that they learn to live, and move, and have their being in the great merciful love of God.
And so this summer, as we travel, and do laundry, and register for new schools, and visit grandparents, and cook dinner, and spend too much time in front of screens, I am going to ask,
How did you glorify God today?
How did you enjoy God today?
How did you see God today?
And if first they do not understand my questions, I will go first, leading by example.
And if I have not glorified, or enjoyed, or seen God that day, I will ask for forgiveness for not paying better attention.
Because God is here. There is no excuse worthy of not noticing.
So, then, how do we live this way?
What are we looking for?
How do we learn to notice?
How do we glorify God?
By loving our neighbor
By taking care of creation
By taking care of each other
By giving ourselves, our talents, and our bounty to those in need
By obeying the call on our lives
By helping the widow reach the cereal on the top shelf at the grocery store
By being good stewards of our material possessions, and our gifts
By being honest
By gathering together
By sharing bread and wine
By enjoying God
The truth is that there are a million ways to glorify God – and most of them are offered to us everyday.
How do we enjoy God?
By enjoying our lives –
By living from a grateful heart
By enjoying our neighbor, our families,
By eating good, healthy, wholesome food
By playing baseball on a cool summer evening
By making cookies to share
By reading under warm blankets
By swinging on tire swings
By going fishing
By taking long walks with best friends
By working in the garden
By telling stories
By playing music
By looking at a piece of art that stops our breath
By seeing God
The truth is that there are a million ways to enjoy God set before us everyday.
How do we see God?
In the way the light hits the trees as the sun goes down.
In the way the baby curls up on the shoulder of his father
In the helping hand of the young man who helped the old man step off the curb without falling
In remembering to check the bank account before that check bounces
In the song that the child sings in the grocery store
In the teacher that helped a student be brave
In the way the lighting bugs flicker across an open pasture
In the smell of a garlic and onions cooking
In the words on the page or the tune on the radio
In the forgiveness for the mistakes we made
In the way the sun came up again
In the tears of the brokenhearted
In how we were loved today
In how other’s glorified him
The truth is that there are a million ways to see God, and they are set before us everyday.
Glorify. Enjoy. See.
What if this summer we put down all our Should’s and Could’s and If Only’s and just asked each other these three questions.
In the car, at the ball field, around the table, after work, while loading the dishwasher…
What we asked, and kept asking, until the questions are as natural to us as breathing?
How did we glorify God today?
How did we enjoy God today?
How did we see God today?
What if we lived, and moved, and had our being in God?
What if our children did too?
Now, that wouldn’t make a great “What I did this summer” essay.
So will you try this with me?
Will you find ways to ask just 3 little questions at the dinner table tonight?
I wonder what we will discover along the way?
Peace & Love my friends –
Filed under: Blog, Faith, Family Tagged: featured, HomespunSummer
