Painting: Stephan Darbyshire
To sit around a table with family is a great privilege, but mealtimes are not just about food.
It is a time to share your beliefs about the home, about family, and the reason for multigenerstional relationships and good practices handed down. It is about how you all came to be here (and where you got your good looks!) No one is completely "self-made" for we all become who we are by the gracious contributions of others and by God's work in our lives.
We, none of us, invented ourselves. We get our humor and our love for our childhoods from our parents and grandparents. We get our code of living, and our feeling of belonging from our own generations before us.
You have probably listened to someone go on and on about all their accomplishments, such as how long they have been married and how old they are and how much they have done, the work they do, the things they are accomplishing.
None of us have got where we are completely on our own! Parents, grandparents and siblings all put effort and money, at great sacrifice to themselves, making each other successful. Let us never throw away the times a brother or a parent were empathetic and kind to us, rescued us, helped us, or the time our own parents and grandparents spent developing our talents and interests.
Meal times are good times to share with your children how thankful you are for your valued childhood and the memories that give you a sense of well-being--the time a brother pulled you away from danger, or a parent protected you or went to extra effort and expense to make special times for you.
Unfortunately many people make mealtimes unhappy by their sharpness. Sometimes no talking is allowed, but consider how much conducive to sharing values a mealtime around the table is. Any other time is nearly impossible to have everyone in the same place focusing on the same thing. Meal times are shared values for all the family. This is a time to talk about everything you share; not about the rest of the world and other people; but about YOUR people and your generstions and your history and your plans and dreams.
It is good to block out the "news" and share your own news.
Meal times are opportunities to get ideas from one another, amd encourage one another, bear one another's burdens, share one another's sorrows, and help one another with their issues.
Painting: Stephen Darbyshire
8 comments:
What lovely paintings! I wish my kitchen was even a small fraction as cozy as that...Lydia, I wonder if you might consider doing a post or two about making a home cozy and attractive with very little cost? Our financial situation is very hard and I almost despair sometimes at the shabbiness in the interior of our home. The little furniture we have expired years ago but we're still using it! But I know there must be things I can do to improve the look and feel of our home.
Laura I will try to address that in the next post.
This post speaks to me!
Lovely paintings and what I noticed the most was that the home was small, but very well kept and very thoughtfully decorated. How often have I thought or made the comment that I don't have enough room for all of my "stuff" when all I really need is some planning and working with the things I already own. What cannot be made more beautiful, more soft, more serene with a small piece of lace sitting underneath it or draped delicately from a shelf? I, too, would love to see a post or two on how to make a home cozy like in the painting above. Enjoy your posts so much!
I love the paintings of a cosy home! I wonder if this type of home decorating will ever return!
I too would love a post about what the other ladies are wanting to know more about...how to make a home cozy...and I love the first painting. VERY cozy!
Your topic too is very helpful and one to think a lot about.
I, of course, love what you write, but I'm also very thankful for the lovely pictures you put up as well. They are the kind of pictures that I "study" and would like to emulate in my own home. Thanks so much for your posts! Happy Mother's Day!
Mary S.
Just lovely and the paintings you shared are a perfect touch of warmth to your topic. Have a lovely weekend!
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