Conference moira::parenting_v3

    Wendy,
    
    Leave it up to the kids!  My interpretation of grace is that it is to
    give thanks.  If you have more than one child, they could take turns
    each evening giving thanks for whatever they're thankful for.
    
    
    Judi
    

My step-son has liked the same one (when it's his turn to say grace) for
about 3 years:

	God is great,
	God is good.
	Let us thank Him
	For our food.   Amen.

    re-.1
    
    
    	That is basically the same grace that I had learned and besides the
    bad dinner memories that it holds for me, one thing that I would be
    trying to avoid is portraying God as a male figure. (note: this is my
    own personal belief system). 
    
    	I want to portray God as a creative, guiding, and caring power, not
    as a man or father figure. This is a very important aspect of my life,
    for although I consider myself very spiritual, I am not in the least
    bit religious (neither I or my husband choose to attend organized
    church services).
    
    				Wendy

Presented tongue in cheek:

My brother's favorite is:

		Good food
		Good meat
		Good God
		Let's eat!

On a more serious note: The table prayers our interdenominational youth
group used to use were simple:

	Lord God, we give thanks for this meal we are about to eat.

	or

	God bless this food and all who share it.  Thank you. Amen.

Don't know if either of those suit your needs.  

--bonnie 

In our family we use

	Earth who gives to us this food
	Sun who makes it ripe and good
	Dear sun, dear earth, by you we live
	Our loving thanks to you we give

and then, all holding hands

	Blessings on the meal

    Another song......
    
    
    The Lord is good to me! 
    And so I thank the Lord, 
    For giving me the things I need, 
    The sun and the rain and the appleseed.
    The Lord is good to me!
    
    My niece and nephew, now twelve and seventeen (!), have been singing this
    since three and seven!
    
    Boy time flies!
    
    Kathy
    

    My Protestant husband likes the Catholic "Grace before Meals" that
    I learned when I was a kid:
    
    Bless us, O Lord, and these thy gifts
    which we are about to receive
    from thy bounty.  Through Christ our Lord, Amen.
    
    Although, .0 had mentioned something about keeping it nondenominational
    and non-gender-specific.  Here's an adaptation from soemthing I read
    in "Dear Abby," of all places:
    
    We give thanks for food
    and remember the hungry.
    We give thanks for friendship
    and remember the lonely.
    We give thanks for all our gifts
    and ask that others may be so blessed
    so that we may be one in spirit, in fellowship and love.  Amen.
    
    We said this at Thanksgiving dinner at our house.  I feel it's
    pretty flexible, as you can insert whatever blessings/petitions you
    have on your mind, also you can insert your name for your deity as
    you see fit.
    
    

At the Girl Scout camp I went to for years, we sang grace before every 
meal.  Johnny Appleseed mentioned a few back was one of the favorites.

Another -

		For health and strength and daily bread
		We praise thy name, oh Lord.

                (this was usually done as a two part round)

One we said as children was

		Thank you for the world so sweet, 
		Thank you for the food we eat.
		Thank you for the birds that sing,
		Thank you, God, for everything.

Norma

    This is the one we use:
    
    Bless O Lord this food to our use, and us to Thy loving service.  Make
    us ever mindful of the needs of others, for Jesus' sake.  Amen.

    
    	For what we are about to receive, may the Lord make us
    	truly thankful.  Amen.
    
    	I don't know if it's demoninational or not.

    
    Rub a dub dub
    Thanks for the grub
    Yea' God
    
    

    In my not-brief-enough stay (2 years) at a secondary boarding school,
    we were strongly encouraged  ;-)  to use a version of .9's - it never
    made a whole lot of sense to me, though:
    
    Bless, oh Lord, this food		[How do you bless "to" something?]
    to our use
    
    And us to thy service		[seems irrelevant to the meal]
    
    In Christ's name*			[hey wait a minute, _I'm_ the one
    					 saying the prayer]
    
    Amen				[*a lot of us muttered, "For
    					 Chrissake, Amen!"]
    
    
    The year I was in nursery school, I was called upon at Thanksgiving to
    say grace for the whole family; so I said it as I'd heard it every day
    before Snack (none of us can say it any other way, or with a straight
    face, ever since):
    
    God is Great
    Good is Good
    Let us thank him
    For our food
    Amen; drink your juice.
    
    					Leslie

    This is the Jewish prayer:
    
    Blessed art thou, Lord, our God, King of the Universe, who bringest
    forth bread from the earth.
    
    It can be adapted in several ways:
    
    * Non-gender specific.  "Ruler of the Universe"
    * Informal case.  "Blessed are you. . . who brings"
    * Different foods. "creates fruit" etc.
    
    For full meals, not snacks, i.e. those where bread is served, the first
    blessing is used to cover all food.  And a much longer blessing is
    recited after the meal.  
    
    Laura

At my son's daycare (Children's World), they say:

	Thank you for the food before us.
	Thank you for the friends beside us.
	Thank you for the love between us.
	Amen.

   Carol

    We kids said the "God is great" blessing when we were growing up.  But
    my dad used the following:
    
    "Lord, bless us and make us ever thankful for these and all thy mercies."
    
    The entire time I was growing up, I always thought he was saying:
    
    "Lord, bless us and make us ever thankful for these and all thy
    NURSES."
    
    I could never understand why he was so thankful for nurses when none of
    us were sick very much.  I was an adult before I realized what he had
    really been saying.
    
    (^;
    
    Steve

    The only grace I remember growing up was...

    God is great
    God is good,
    Let us thank him for our food
    Amen

    From good ole' Romper Room!!

    
    I grew up with this mealtime prayer and have since taught it to
    my children.
    
    Thank you God
    for the food
    which we are
    about to eat
    	Amen
    
    At special meals one member of the family would add on
    an extra thank you for what ever the occasion.

    Joseph Campbell, in "The Power of Myth," points out that we have long
    forgotten the once-commonplace practice of giving thanks to the animals
    that give their life for us. (If you're not serving meat you don't have
    to worry about this, though if you're sensitive to plants you could
    thank them too.)
    
    Campbell says that in a hunting society the hunter would be the one to
    thank the animal before killing it. Obviously, today you can't assume
    that anybody has made peace with your food on your behalf, so I think a
    tableside ritual might be nice. For the exact words, you're probably on
    your own. 
    
    					Val

    Val
    
    When we raised our own meat we did give thanks for the life of the
    animals - since we'd known them - when we ate them.
    
    it may be a factor of being closer to the process.
    
    Bonnie