To Nourish and Strengthen
As members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints we pray a lot! At least to me it seems like a lot. We are told to pray daily, morning and evening, at every meal. We pray before and after all our meetings, and before we take the sacrament. We are also told to always have a prayer in our heart. Now all this praying is a good thing, it brings us closer to our Heavenly Father, it helps us be thankful for what we have, it bring peace and hope to our lives. I'll be the first to admit that I am not a perfect pray-er...there are days when my most sincere prayer is "Please God help bedtime come faster today", or "Keep the children safe Heavenly Father I want to strangle them"! The best thing I have learned through our whole "trial" is to pray more often and to say thankful prayers. Most of my prayers nowadays involve a lot of thank yous and please bless my husband to heal.
The one thing that does happen when we say so many prayers is that some of them become repetitious. The kids say the same things at meal time prayers and bedtime too. One thing that gets said a lot is "please bless the food that it will nourish and strengthen our bodies". Now this was always a funny phrase to me. Of course the food will nourish and strengthen us (unless maybe it's McDonald's then it's questionable). Why do we say it? Who came up with that?
Well that phrase has new meaning for us now. Each time we pray as a family over a meal we ask that the food will nourish and strengthen us, mainly Chris. He has lost a huge amount of weight and with that weight went a lot of muscle mass. He is relearning how to eat, and his digestive tract is learning how to digest again. Every meal is an adventure, to put it lightly, we never know if the food will sit well and go down easily or if it will cause 3 days of vomiting and pain. Thankfully since Thanksgiving he has added lots of new things to his menu. Before Thanksgiving he could eat some chicken, cantaloupe, and tunafish...that's all. Now he can eat lots more things and hold them down! He still can't have any meats besides fish and poultry. For anyone that knows my husband this is a HUGE deal. Chris is the ultimate foodie and loves good flavors and textures. Now it's all about the easy to swallow and digest and keep down.
So when we say those words they aren't just lip service they are meaningful to us and we truly pray that they are heard by our Heavenly Father.
The one thing that does happen when we say so many prayers is that some of them become repetitious. The kids say the same things at meal time prayers and bedtime too. One thing that gets said a lot is "please bless the food that it will nourish and strengthen our bodies". Now this was always a funny phrase to me. Of course the food will nourish and strengthen us (unless maybe it's McDonald's then it's questionable). Why do we say it? Who came up with that?
Well that phrase has new meaning for us now. Each time we pray as a family over a meal we ask that the food will nourish and strengthen us, mainly Chris. He has lost a huge amount of weight and with that weight went a lot of muscle mass. He is relearning how to eat, and his digestive tract is learning how to digest again. Every meal is an adventure, to put it lightly, we never know if the food will sit well and go down easily or if it will cause 3 days of vomiting and pain. Thankfully since Thanksgiving he has added lots of new things to his menu. Before Thanksgiving he could eat some chicken, cantaloupe, and tunafish...that's all. Now he can eat lots more things and hold them down! He still can't have any meats besides fish and poultry. For anyone that knows my husband this is a HUGE deal. Chris is the ultimate foodie and loves good flavors and textures. Now it's all about the easy to swallow and digest and keep down.
So when we say those words they aren't just lip service they are meaningful to us and we truly pray that they are heard by our Heavenly Father.
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