I’ve been taking a “parent” class at church based on the book, Spiritually Vibrant Homes. One concept taught was “messy tables.” Here’s one of our messy table moments:
Last night, we were about to open our meal with the common table prayer. My daughter stopped us and said, “Hey! Why don’t we get our jar, each grabs a stick, and pray around the table for our stick before we eat?” Then, wow… My husband suddenly got shy about praying out loud and my daughter coached him on how to pray. Well, we all did like crazy auctioneers or something, but her advice was the best. “It doesn’t have to be much, Dad. Just pray.”
It was a long and messy prayer around the table – we laughed, talked about stuff, got off-topic, and we prayed. Some of us started eating before we were done praying, but that was legit. That dinner was awesome.
The jar with the sticks is a prayer jar I started during a previous class in this series (it was the activity). I was surprised at how much everyone loved the idea.
One tip: Use a fine-tip sharpie to write on the sticks. I need to rewrite ours with a fine-point Sharpie. The regular Sharpie marker is too “fat” to be overly readable. I just happen to remember what I wrote to translate the blobs of ink.