For a long time, grace before dinner at our house meant waiting to see who would say something first. Usually it was quick, heads down for a few seconds, a few words, done before anyone really noticed we had prayed at all. I told myself that was enough. It was not that I did not want my kids to pray. I just never thought of it as something I was actually supposed to lead.

Then I came across the verse in Deuteronomy where God tells his people to keep his words on their hearts, teach them to their children, and talk about them when they sit in their house, when they walk, when they lie down, when they rise. Sitting in the house. That is the dinner table. That is most evenings at my house right now.

So the exercise for today is small and specific. At one meal today, I am going to lead the prayer myself, out loud, slower than usual, and actually say something true instead of the same four words we always default to. Maybe just naming what I am grateful for about each person sitting there. Nothing elaborate. Just not leaving it to whoever brings it up first.

Today’s Bible Study

Paul tells fathers not to exasperate their children, but to bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. It is easy to hear discipline and think only of correction, rules, consequences. But instruction sits right there next to it. Teaching my kids to pray is not an extra project layered on top of fatherhood. It is part of the same job as feeding them and tucking them in at night. I do not need to invent a new role to lead my family spiritually. I just need to actually do the one I already have.

Recommended Reading

If you want to see where today’s small exercise could actually lead, look up Pray, the documentary about Venerable Patrick Peyton, the priest who spent his whole life convincing ordinary families that praying together out loud, at home, was worth the trouble. He is the one who made the phrase “the family that prays together stays together” known around the world, and it is exactly what I needed to hear today.