"The Blessing"

I remember sitting at the table with my family and my grandparents and my cousins and aunts and uncles waiting to have dinner together. And before we could pass around the platter of ham and the bowls of potatoes and green beans, my grandfather would say "the blessing".

As a young child, hungry to eat and a little impatient, it felt like that prayer would go on a long time. But we never missed doing it and I think the food tasted all the better because of the prayer. And even if we all went out for pizza as a family, we'd all take time to hold hands around the table and bow our heads and say the blessing. It made the people around us sort of curious!

I'm thankful for those habits that I learned as a child--to be grateful for the food on the table and the family gathered together for that meal, to say my prayers before getting into bed, of learning to bow my head and listen to the prayers during worship on Sunday morning.

Prayer is a mysterious thing if you think about it. We can't see God up in heaven listening to us. We don't get gold stars from God when we say a prayer at bedtime every night without missing. But the more we pray, the more we feel assured that God hears and God answers. In some way He truly opens the eyes of heart so that we see Him at work!

This Fall we're going to be looking at some special prayers in the Bible in order to understand better why we pray and how to pray. I encourage you to talk about why prayer is important to you as a family. I think we have a lot to learn about the power of prayer!

Praying for you and with you! Mrs. Bess