Table Grace

When my kids were little we had a big glass jar.  One day we sat down together and I helped them write the names of all the people that were in our life.  Our family, our grandparents, relatives, their friends, teachers, school principle, our minister, youth pastor, sunday school teachers and the president of the United States.  We put all these slips of paper in our jar.  Every night at dinner, we would bring out the jar and whoevers turn it was to say grace got to pick out a name.  They were to include them in their prayer.  Before we started our prayer jar, the kids would usually recite from memory a simple prayer with little thought.  After we introduced the prayer jar, they were actually thinking about what they were saying.  Something else amazing happened.  We all paid more attention to the lives of the people we were praying for.  We became much closer in our relationships with them.  Sometimes a name was drawn two nights in a row.  At first the kids wanted to put it back and redraw.  But then we came to feel like they needed extra prayers.  It was a great way to teach my children to pray for others needs, and to pay attention to those close to us.  My youngest daughter whenever she sees a jar like "our prayer jar", she always says "hey remember our jar"!  I created this box to inspire others to continue the tradition of the family prayer jar.  You can purchase one from my etsy store, or order one with your kitchen colors and theme from me.  I hope I have inspired you.