Prayers at mealtime!!?

Frog

Who still find it strange years on to dive straight into your mail meal without 'giving thanks'? I say main meal, because dad's prayers were always considerably lengthy before a main meal, and are an institution in every jw household. Even now after a few years I'm just about ready to tuck in when I find myself saying a simple thanks under my breath. Perhaps it wouldn't be so strange if I still had belief in a god and creator, but I really don't! So I don't know to whom it is I am extending my thanks to, I cook for myself, I support myself, therefore I must be thanking myself?!? I guess I'm really just grateful for what I have, and the good life I have, as opposed to those who are not so fortunate... frog

zugzwang

I don't remember the last time I prayed, about or for anything. It would seem strange praying to "Jehovah" when the "Jehovah" I had been praying to would always in my mind be associated with a false religion. But it felt weird the few times I tried to pray to Jesus. So I don't know who to pray to or what to pray for. I guess I could pray for guidance, but I did that for the first 27 years of my life and only at the age of 28 did I get the guidance I was looking for. Namely, guidance out of the borg. I'm somewhat upset with God to think that he would let me linger in untruth all that time. Kind of makes me question his existence at all. Now that I think about it, the last time I prayed I said to God, "If you exist prove it to me now by striking me dead right now!" Obviously nothing happened. Another unanswered prayer. I don't recall praying since then.

Lehaa

yeah, i felt weird for a few months. but after then forgot.

Once and a while my son will remind me we're supposed to say one. So i to him if he want's one he can say it. I hate it, listening him say how sorry he is for this and that, how he wished Jehovah would help him be good. Poor kid.

Nancy Drake

my dad would give lengthy prayers before dinner. He especially liked to tell Jehovah to help me with whatever it was that I did wrong that day. By the time he got to amen, I had usually lost my appetite.

POs Son

Now being grown, married and a father myself, I found it interesting that my father stopped praying over meals when he visits my home. We have been respectful at his home, when he prays over dinner, and even invited him to pray at our home, as a sign of respect of their beliefs. One day, (I forget the circumstances) he announced that he would no longer pray at my home. Strange....

No problem with me!

tijkmo

i had this discussion with my ma.....i dont feel inclined to thank god for anything.......she said but hes responsible for the air you breath and the food you eat etc..and i said i always thank those who are personally responsible for providing me with something like i thank you for lunch 2day..but this thanking by extention means that i also have the right to blame him for the way his org treated me even though you keep saying it wasnt god it was imperfect elders....to me its like a child who gets regularly battered by his father, however "justifiably", being reluctant to thank him for working to put food on the table...so no i dont pray at mealtimes by myself......but if im asked to pray on someone elses meal then i dont make a fuss.....'my hypocrite?

dh

i always thought it was stupid to pray to thank god for a meal. for crying out loud if you believe in god then he's the one who made us dependent on food in the first place.

who says a prayer before filling their car up with gas? now that's what i'm interested in.

glitter

Praying to give thanks for a meal is much nicer and more positive than a person only praying when they *want* something from God.

/doesn't pray

dh

Praying to give thanks for a meal is much nicer and more positive than a person only praying when they *want* something from God.

to me it's like junkies praying to their dealer. thank you for the drugs i am dependent on, thank you so much.

Pleasuredome

good point DH.

i always thought it was pointless. its just a ritual. lets face it, food these days is full of shit that harms us, it costs us hard work for crap money to buy it, farming methods/multinationals adversly affect the enviroment and third world people, do we have to thank god for that?

Prayers at mealtime!!?

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