How to Make an Ordinary Family Meal Really Fun!
If you’ve seen my post on the staggering importance of family dinners, you know it’s a priority worth fighting for. But, how do you make the most of your family meal together? Shared mealtimes should be cherished and looked forward to by each member of the family: kids, teens, and grown-ups! Family dinners around our table are usually full of fun, laughter, silliness, and sometimes a dose of God’s Word. (Okay…and maybe an occasional stern voice from Dad reminding everyone to settle down and actually EAT!)
Dinner Games
In case I needed another reason to love Chick-fil-A (I didn’t), we got a set of cards in a kids meal over a year ago titled “Dinner Games.” This has been a family favorite ever since. These are random games written on cards that can be done while you’re seated and eating (although my boys always take it up a notch find it necessary to get up from the table to give it all they’ve got! ;)). They’re silly, fun, and definitely make us laugh (the games and the boys!). You don’t have to have this exact game…ANY game in the form of cards will do. Some that come to mind are Headbands (There are so many versions of this fun game now! It’s definitely our most frequently-played family game!), Would You Rather, and, one we created ourselves, Who Am I? In this fun game, we imitate one another in a distinctive way so that everyone else will easily guess who we are. This is a fun way to give one another a hard time and a definite belly-laugh!
Talk
This may sound obvious, but create intentional conversations with your kids during the family meal. Some of our go-to questions every night are: What was the best part of your day? What was the worst part of your day? Did anything make you laugh today? Did anything make you feel sad today? When did you feel proud of yourself today? Did you wish you did anything differently today? Did you have the opportunity to serve anyone today? These questions are sometimes answered simply, but oftentimes they will remind the kids of a story they want to share (Usually the question about what made them laugh comes with a comical story!). If we hadn’t had these intentional conversations, we would never have shared these moments or received important insight on our children’s day!
Family Devotional 
We sometimes choose to have family devotional time during a family meal. It seems to be the only chance we have to squeeze it in most days. Disclaimer: this can be extremely difficult with very small children at the table. We typically have to repeat ourselves, reread verses or stories, clean a spill or two, and try to remain serious about the devotion while holding back laughter (and maybe a little exasperation)…all thanks to the toddler in our house. He really seems to turn up in rare-form during this time! 😉 While it isn’t always easy and never distraction-free, if this is the most realistic chance we have of actually accomplishing our family devotional, we take it. And it’s certainly always worth it!
