“No one eats until we say ‘Amen’ y’all”. I saw this cute sign in a local gift shop and it got me to thinking…

My 79 year old daddy often comments when he sits down to eat, ‘Mama would tell me to take my hat off at the table.’ This mountain, farm family didn’t stress a whole lot of etiquette. There was never more than one fork at a place setting and cornbread was passed on a round dinner plate for all hands to pull out a chunk. Still, everyone knew they must wait for “Grace” before they dug-in. And pull of your cap!

Today, it seems like we run 90-to-nothing with a million things on our mind. We eat from drive-through windows because we don’t have the time to go in and sit down. We eat cold cereal and sandwiches because we can’t manage to cook a meal. Okay, maybe this is just my life, but it could be that it sounds like somebody you know too.

Compared to my mountain ancestors, we are better educated, more widely traveled and aware of cultures around the world. Still, there are some traditions from home that we need to maintain and pausing to return thanks to God is at the top of the list.

I even had to chastise my little Wednesday night kids’ club recently that we are nowhere near hungry enough that we can’t pause for a moment to thank the Lord that provided our food.

The sign is cute, but the need for it is a little sad to me. We need to slow down enough to appreciate our blessings and taste our food.