Two-minute read.
As a coal miner, my Dad left for work early. Usually, his day ended around 4:00 p.m. when he backed the dump truck into our driveway. Mom always had dinner waiting on the table for him. He would use the CB radio to let her know what time he would arrive.
“I’m coming up the Templeton hill,” he would say, his voice crackling over the connection. Mom would immediately set the table and start laying out the meal, knowing she had ten minutes before the engine’s rattle would fill her ears.
Dad sat at the head of the table, Mom to his left, my brothers to his right, and me facing him. We ate as a family. I would say the prayer, and we would eat and drink and find satisfaction in our toil. I kept the prayer short and sweet.
“God is great, God is good. Thank you for our food. Bless it to our bodies. In Jesus’s name I pray. Amen.”
My memories of our family dinners remind me of Ecclesiastes 3:13. We thanked God for each day He gave us, and enjoyed His blessings. In an ordinary life, our dinner time held a sacred tone, a time when we came together in love and peace—a time that marked the end of a hard day’s work and the satisfaction that came with it.
Ron and I still pray over our meals, but now he does the praying. And we enjoy the same satisfaction from our day’s work as we enjoy the Lord’s blessings.
Solomon invites us to ground ourselves in a grateful lifestyle, receiving today as enough because of God’s presence in it. Enjoyment becomes spiritual when we root it in gratitude. Contentment comes from recognizing what we already have.
The Lord doesn’t only exist in the grand, life-altering moments, but in the ordinary rhythms of life: working, eating, resting, and enjoying what you have. Finding satisfaction in the everyday things we have lets us receive God’s gift in the ordinary.
Reflection:
Where might you be overlooking simple blessings today because you’re focused on what’s next?
Joy Thought:
Enjoy God’s gift of an ordinary day.
