Tips on How to Say Grace
In case you are ever asked to say grace at a meal and it is not your favorite thing, or you’re not good at adlibbing, or there’s no clergyperson to call upon, it is wise to have a prayer in your hip pocket or purse should this happen to you.
If it is a potluck, the first thing is positioning. You want to position yourself at the head of the food table. Why? It’s a little like when our family said the prayer on fried chicken days. We four kids bowed our heads with our forks raised high ready to spear our favorite piece of chicken before anyone else got it.
Presuming God would appreciate a little variation beyond tired traditional phrases, or even a little humor, here are a few possibilities, some with easy to remember rhymes:
Good food, good meat, good God, let’s eat.
Dear God, bless this bunch as we munch our lunch.
Thank you for this food we are about to eat, may it nourish our bodies from head to feet.
God is good, God is great, thank you God for the food on our plate.
Like birds in the wilderness, we have waited for our food, we thank you God now that it has finally arrived.
Thank you, Lord, for the delicious food and wonderful company, and thankyou that we won’t have to do this again for another year.
If you get tongue tied you can always do as a young man at church camp who was asked to pray for the meal in front of his peers: He began:
“Dear God………Long pause………….Awe shucks.”