Mealtime Prayers

When my girls were younger, meals consisted of mom trying to eat while breastfeeding the baby and trying to help spoon food into a hungry screaming toddler's mouth.  Things have calmed down a bit around here as they've gotten older and we've recently begun saying prayers before we eat.  To help us remember to say them, I wrote up several prayers on index cards.  Lucy put fruit and veggies stickers on the back of each one and I laminated them.  We keep the cards on or near the kitchen table and Lucy and Julia enjoy picking one out for me to read.  We also say our own prayers at times, but we enjoy these written prayers too.  Here are the prayers that I used:

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

God you’re great, God you’re good.
Now we thank you for our food.
By your hands, we are fed.
Now we thank you for our bread.
Amen.

(This is a popular prayer that I changed a bit so that we were talking to God rather than about him.  "God you're great" instead of "God is great", etc.)

God our Father, God our Father,
We thank you, we thank you,
For our many blessings, for our many blessings,
A-ah-men, A-ah-men.

(Sung to the tune of Are You Sleeping, Brother John?)

Now I fold my hands and say
Thank you God for my food today

When I get up, I'm thankful for a brand-new day.
When I get dressed, I'm thankful I can run and play.
When I sit down to eat, I'm thankful for my food.
And most of all, I'm thankful for a God who is so good.
Amen.