As our eldest hits double figures, we’re tentatively considering secondary schools, which is why you’ll now find me on the school run quizzing all the parents I know with older kids about their school experiences. One such conversation led to me chatting with a Christian mum about the way faith issues are presented.
It was around the time of Charlie Kirk’s murder and this mum told me her daughter had come home saying they’d discussed his death in the classroom. That a teacher had presented Kirk as somebody who stood for something “not very nice”, but apparently hadn’t gone into details. Having not heard of him before, this teenage girl asked her parents about him. They explained that actually the man was a Christian, and much of what he stood for was Biblical.
How do we equip our kids for these conversations?
This led me to ask how this family had responded to finding this out about what their daughter was being told at school. The answer had been simple: they’d chatted about it around the dinner table. Which got me thinking about how crucial meal times with our kids are.
Not only is this where we can speak truth into things our children are hearing, but by consistently having conversations around the table (or under it – I see you), our kids will know that we are open to discussion, that they can bring their questions, thoughts, opinions and concerns to us. When we allow the time and space for this in the small things, I’m sure we’ll reap the benefits when the bigger things, like this Kirk dialogue, crop up.
Biblical mealtime ministry
This certainly isn’t a new idea. Throughout the gospels we see Jesus going into people’s homes to have discussions with them over a meal. It’s how He spent much of His ministry. And God’s plan to have His people be strengthened in their faith and reminded of who He is stretches way back before Jesus, too. Think of the Passover. Even before the Israelites had left Egypt, God told them to remember His act of rescuing them by having a meal and speaking about what He had done for them.
This act continues through the New Testament, too, as Jesus tells His disciples instead to remember Him and His sacrifice as we break bread and drink wine together. Every time we take Communion we are sharing a simple meal with fellow believers, reminding each other of what God has done, and are strengthened to go on in our faith.
But the act of having a family meal together is becoming rarer today, in a culture where everything seems to be pulling us away from such times. We’ve got before and after school clubs, smartphones and gaming devices, endless TV streaming, an economy where often both parents feel they need to be in employment, and a society that no longer seems to value families spending simple time together. I can’t help feeling that the world, the flesh and the devil are teaming up to put an end to family meal times.
Could it be because they’re of great spiritual importance?
What if they are also our most undervalued weapon for fighting back? As we eat together as often as we can, without external distractions, and have genuine conversations with our kids, whether they’re two or 22, think what we’ll be equipping them with: social time, reasoning skills, new vocabulary, the opportunity to share their thoughts, the chance to vent, new questions to ask, time to formulate answers and to figure out what they think and believe.
A new generation of Christians that is well equipped with these skills will be a formidable force against the powers of darkness. I’m praying we’ll make the most of these opportunities and that God will build us and our families in these times.
