Our Daily Bread: Dependence and Gratitude Around the Table
We’ve set a schedule for who prays over dinner each night of the week, a habit I grew up with in my family. I never realized until this year that it was probably because my mom dealt with the same fights about who gets to pray 30 years ago. It’s Monday night, and my two-year-old proudly declares, “My pray!”
I don’t know what my youngest understands at this point about prayer or even about God, but I hope that this act of regularly praying before our meals will someday sink into my kids’ souls—and I hope it keeps sinking into mine.
Recognizing Dependence
Growing up in a Christian home, we prayed regularly before meals. Sometimes the practice held more meaning, like before a Thanksgiving feast or on Easter Sunday as we focused on all we had been given. Other times, the mealtime prayer has been one I’ve struggled to utter: I didn’t really want to thank God for breakfast the morning my mom died. But most days, prayer before meals dwindles to a quick sentence said in a rush, one that grants permission to finally eat.
For many of us, saying grace can easily become trite and meaningless. I wonder if it’s because we have forgotten to ask for our daily bread in the first place. For me, starvation hasn’t been lurking around the corner, and when we’re out of food, we just go buy more. Sure, I have to stick to a budget, and I rarely buy name brand products. There were a number of years growing up when my parents struggled financially, but I was too young to realize our meals came from groceries left on our doorstep or were purchased with money anonymously left in our mailbox. In college, I’d show up at my brother and sister-in-law’s house to clean out whatever they had left in their fridge, and in grad school I breathed a sigh of relief every time my landlord offered me a home-cooked meal.
But I have never known true physical hunger, and I’ve found that when I can easily go buy my organic, sprouted, daily bread, I’m less inclined to give God credit for providing it. When our fridges are full and our pantries overflowing, forgetfulness often overflows, too. We overlook God, and we’re guilty of the same sin Hosea spoke against: “But when they had grazed, they became full, they were filled, and their heart was lifted up; therefore they forgot me” (Hosea 13:6). Yet everything that is good comes from God.[2] The fact that many of us don’t remember to ask for our daily bread and it shows up anyway doesn’t mean we can take the credit. It means our God is so good and merciful that he provides even for his chronically forgetful people.
As we pray before meals and for our meals, we have an opportunity to recognize our dependence and give thanks to our God who graciously gives us all things.[3]
Practicing True Gratitude
The food on our table is not just another meal. Instead, when we acknowledge our dependence, we begin to see each meal as a tangible answer to prayer. What we eat demonstrates provision from God’s hand, and offering thanks for our food doesn’t have to be reduced to an empty phrase. It’s true gratitude to the God who provides.
Our words of thanks are an act of worship that reminds us not just of our physical provision, but also of a spiritual reality. It’s not just our stomachs that need filling. The daily bread that we need is both physical and spiritual—and Christ points us to that truth. Shortly after feeding the five thousand, Jesus told the crowd, “Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world” (John 6:32-33). Praying for our daily bread and giving thanks for what he’s provided reminds us of who God is. Our physical needs point us to the One who gives us life, not just in the form of sustenance but also in salvation.
Our Real Life Tables
Putting this into practice around our real life tables isn’t always easy. At my house, it doesn’t look like a solemn, orderly time of prayer in which my kids happily participate. Someone usually spills their milk, there are arguments over whose day it is to pray, and I honestly don’t know what they can grasp at this point in their young lives.
Yet I do know that, Lord willing, I will have over 10,000 meals with my kids before they leave home. Dinner tonight does not have to look perfect. But every day, exemplifying dependence and gratitude to them makes a difference. We can teach our kids the Lord’s Prayer, talk regularly about the character of God, explain where our food comes from, and show through our own words and actions what dependence on God and gratitude look like.
We get to remind our children day-by-day, meal-by-meal, that we eat from the hand of a God who is good and generous and faithful. We get to teach them the character of God and the language of thanksgiving when we sit down to eat.
Whether eloquent phrases or the simple words of a child, praying humbly and honestly for both our physical and spiritual daily bread reminds us of our dependence. Around our tables, we can model that dependence as we thank God for our food. It’s not just “something we do” as Christians, but it’s a way to acknowledge our need and his provision—provision for our daily bread and provision as the Bread of Life.
[1] Matthew 21:16
[2] James 1:17
[3] Romans 8:32
