Blessings Before Meals

Each person said a prayer before each meal. On New Year’s day we would rotate. The youngest prayed first, then Mother prayed.

The first prayer each of us learned was "God bless this food. Amen."
Mother's prayer was "The eyes of all wait upon thee; and thou givest them their meat in due season. Thou openest thine hand, and satisfiest the desire of every living thing." (Psalm 145:15-16)

These are some of the prayers we remember saying:
Come Lord Jesus. Be our guest. Let these gifts to us be blessed.

We thank the Lord for this our food, for life and health and every good. Amen.

God is great, God is good and we thank Him for our food. By His hand we all are fed. Give us Lord our daily bread.

The Norwegian Table Prayer:I Jesu navn går vi til bords
å spise, drikke på ditt ord.
Deg, Gud til ære, oss til gavn,
Så får vi mat i Jesu navn.
Amen.

Translated to:
In Jesus' name to the table we go
To eat and drink according to His word.
To God the honor, us the gain,
So we have food in Jesus' name.
Amen.

After every meal we prayed, "We thank Thee for these gifts, O Lord. Pray feed our souls, too, with Thy Word. Amen."
After breakfast, family devotion included reading chapters from the Bible, Day by Day with Jesus daily devotions (pulled from a packet on the wall). This even went on vacation with us. Mother always had a general prayer that always included a prayer for a missionary. One, Miss Lilian Bangs, was a childhood friend of Mother’s serving in Columbia. Sometimes Dad added a prayer.