Prayer

I grew up praying before meals and this is something I think is very important to pass down to my children.  Our family starts dinner each night with a prayer before our meal.  Our three year old reminds us each night and she will not start eating until we have prayed!

Being catholic, we use the traditional catholic prayer:
          Bless us Oh Lord for these our gifts which we are about to receive, from thy           
                     bounty, through Christ, our Lord  Amen.

There are many different prayers out there or you can pray your own personal prayer. 
One prayer I used while teaching during apple season:
         Oh the Lord is good to me and so I thank the Lord for giving me the things I need like sun
                    and the rain and then apple tree.  The Lord is good to me.  Amen

The most important thing about praying before meals is to be able to thank the Lord for the food which we are about to eat.  There are many families out there who are not able to have such wonderful meals and some who don't get to eat meals together or at all.  We are teaching our children to be thankful for the gifts which we have been given and to pray for those who are less fortunate.  I encourage you if you do not already, to start praying before meals with your spouse and/or children.  They will enjoy it and it can become part of your family routine!
As the year goes by, we change things up a bit to go along with the seasons of the year and of our faith.  As they change I will share with you what we do...