I like to eat! Recently, I’ve developed an affinity for cooking as well. For some reason, if asked to cook indoors, my skills are severely lacking. One time, while attempting to cook a grilled cheese, I permanently damaged a pan. 

The thing that turned my cooking around was the realization of cooking outdoors. Grilling, smoking (meats), and my cast-iron flat-top have been GAME CHANGERS! Cooking has gone from something that was a hazardous chore to a hobby. 

But the best part of the experience isn’t the cooking, or (necessarily) the consuming of the delicious ribs, chicken, steak, or vegetable I’ve prepared. It’s the conversations around the table. 

There is something special about sitting around the table with our family (and sometimes friends) and enjoying conversations about the events of the day, or what we are working on tomorrow. Around our kitchen table, I enjoy asking our kids what they learned at school today, how things went with their friends and other similar questions. Sunday conversations are even better because we talk about the bible lessons they learned in their classes that morning. We are constantly reminded of the great teachers they have and are blown away by how much information they retain. 

Around our table, we have imparted life lessons and invested in our kids. We have shared prayer requests and then discussed them when God answered. Through these conversations, we have seen little lives and minds be molded and influenced in the most biblical way we know. 

Deuteronomy 6:5-7 says, “And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.”

I understand that life gets busy and families can’t always sit at the table for a meal, but when you can, make it happen. 

Turn the TV off, put the phones away, and enjoy the time you have been given, with the gifts God has given you. Whether they are infants or high school graduates, invest every second you can in the people God has given you to influence.

So take advantage of meal times and use them to point your family to the Savior.