Teach your children to love their heavenly Father.
My mum is taking care of 4 children tonight. I made the 3 year old and the 7 year old two hash-browns each. I sat them at their kiddie-table with forks and then told them to say grace. My mum said they probably don't know how. I said grace with them, asked them to fold their hands and close their eyes, and then afterwards... 7 year old: You're funny! Me: You have to say grace before you eat...! 3 year old: Grace! They didn't understand what saying grace was or what it meant. It is thanking God for the meal you're about to receive.
When I grew up, in England and here in America, I had maybe 6-7 brothers at a time, and we always said grace. We'd say the same thing, but when I became a Christian, I voluntarily picked it up again and began praying more personal prayers to Him before the meal I receive. (And it's by His strength that we have this food, we're on foodstamps at the moment.) But it's important to teach your children these small little things. They're like seeds. So one day they'll wonder why we always say grace before we eat or what it means, and that's when you can tell them that it's by God's strength that you got up to go to the place of work God provided for you in order to get the meal, and it's Him you thank for providing it. That's how they will grow to know our heavenly Father intimately, and on the same personable level that Christ was talking about. So don't skimp out on saying grace! You'll feed both your children's bodies AND their souls. And when their soul is full in Christ, they will neither hunger nor thirst. Teach them how to fish and they'll feed themselves and their families until the end of their days under the sun. Teach them the Word early and how to eat the bread of Life (Jesus Christ) and they will neither hunger nor thirst for their days here on earth and beyond that. Your heavenly Father wants it. Shouldn't we, as parents? (Well, I'm not exactly a parent yet, but with all the kids in my mum's daycare, it certainly feels that way sometimes ^_^.) Today they eat to live another day. But tomorrow...they could live to eat forever. And I'm a living testimony, trust me, it will help them!
Proverbs Chapter 22: "Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it."
