Eat Dinner as a Family
Andrew Norton
Mitch Albom has a great column from Sunday's Free Press on the advantages of families that eat dinner together. As a kid, the dinner table was where we talked about our day at school and learned that if you complained about how you had more vegetables on your plate than your sister you ended up getting another heaping spoonful. Families that have dinner together won't be without their trouble. However, I am willing to bet that a family that cares enough to make it a priority to eat dinner together is already ahead of most other families. It shows a commitment to the family instead of extra music or sports practices, or meetings you just couldn't say no to.
It is scary how busy families are these days with individual activities. We are so busy having "fun" that we have forgotten how to have fun without being busy. A fun and full life is not about how many different activities you can be involved in.
We recently had a missionary at our church that made a statement that has stuck with me. He was in Africa and one of the Africans laughed at him for wearing a watch. He said to the missionary, "In America, you have watches. In Africa, we have time."
Time. All the money in the world won't buy more when you realize you don't have much left.