What I'd Miss If We Didn't Have Dinner Together

Eating dinner together has always been a priority in our family.  When our kids were smaller, it was just something we did.  As our older kiddo's grew, it became something we purposely did.  Now all our kids know that it is just expected that we will all be at dinner together.  Now that we have a couple of teenagers, there are days when we are missing a child or two.  But this is the exception and not the rule.

This is our time to connect as a family.  Hubby works from 7:30AM-5:00PM, so he is away from the home most of the day.   Dinner is the time when all the kiddo's get to sit down with Daddy and talk with him.  If we didn't have dinner together, we'd miss some opportunities for good communication.

We get to hear some pretty funny stories during dinner time.  We would miss this time if we didn't spend dinners together.  The silliness is usually from our youngest 2 children,  and sometimes we can't believe the things they come up with. 

We find out things we never knew about.  This is usually from our oldest 2 children.  We've found that they will admit things~especially things they may have done when they were younger~or freely talk about things we never knew about.  For instance we recently found out about some mischief on Stinkerbelle's part when she was about 6 years old.  We would miss out on these opportunities if we didn't have meals together.

We get to meet people we may not have the opportunity to meet otherwise.  Since our older kiddo's know that family dinners are important, they are more likely to invite a friend over for dinner if they want to spend time with that person.  There's always room at our dinner table for more.  We've had great discussions with many kids {who were not ours!} at our dinner table.  We would have probably missed out on those connections if we didn't have dinner together.

We'd miss family devotions.  After dinner each  night hubby leads family devotions.  We have several different devotionals we use.  Since we have both small and older kiddo's, we like to mix it up so we are reaching each of them at some point during the week.  As Sweetcheeks is learning to read, she likes to try reading our preschool devotional.  Yes, it's very simplistic for our 16 year old {not to mention that she's heard it many times already!}, but it is something that our 4 year old understands.  We would miss these opportunities for character building and strengthening our spiritual walk if we didn't have dinner together each night.

Taking our time at the table and just enjoying each other is something I look forward to each day.  We're teaching our children that family is important as is family time together.  Unfortunately in our society, this is something that is declining as we are all in such a hurry to get to the next thing.  If family dinner's are an area your family struggles in, take small steps to get there.  Start by scheduling one night a week and work your way up.  Most of all, enjoy the time together {in our house, this also means no phone calls or electronic devices!}.  You'll be glad you did!

Blessings,