A Simple Grace

The first time I watched Blue Bloods I didn't think I would like it, but I did. I really like Tom Selleck in this role as Frank Reagan. In every episode, at least that I have watched , the Reagan family has a Sunday Dinner together. They say a simple grace before their meal. The other day as I watched, I thought about how this acknowledges God. It respects God, and I felt better about my own simple grace. Thank you,  Lord for this food, Amen. Simple, short, not a show, but it just plain shows respect towards God. We thank you for these gifts you have given us, is about what they say in their grace before their meal. It really impressed me that as simple as it was, they respect God. I like that about their show. I had dinner with some cousins recently and I really enjoyed my time of fellowship.  Even more than the meal, just talking and getting to know some cousins that have been distant over the years. Christian families, they always say a grace before their meal. Then as we were leaving, we prayed together. These little things, they show respect towards God. After all, it is God that wakes us up each morning. Even if we have an alarm clock, which I don't anymore. I do, but it is a time piece that I can look at to see what time it is, the alarm has not gone off in that thing for a couple of years. God wakes us up, he has provided food for our table, shelter over our heads, clothes on our backs. When we were growing up, he gave us the imperfect parents that we had. A father as imperfect as he was worked hard to provide for us. A mother that also worked for most of the years as well as taking care of us and the home as best she could. I never realized how blessed we were to have two imperfect parents until I saw so many kids that didn't have any. One child that made me appreciate my parents more than anything was a young girl named Asia. She never even knew who her father was. At least half of her years in childhood, her mother spent in jail or prison for drug related offences. She lived with a grandmother that didn't want her and even said so in front of her. Several times I bought her a few clothes, and one year in particular that was all she had for her first week of school and she wore them every day. So many ways, we were blessed, God is worthy to be respected and thanked with even a simple grace. I have family, when we get together we do not and I wish we did. Just a simple grace to thank a Sovereign God for all he does for us. It doesn't have to be a show, just a simple grace that shows respect for God. We live in a fallen world and so many of us had imperfect parents and were/are imperfect parents ourselves.  I often think how well we turned out, thank you God. One brother a painter, several sister have a job sitting at a desk. One sister is about the best with children, I have ever seen. One brother was able to manage a store even as a teenager. His boss would depend on him to run the store even as a 16, 17 year old kid. One brother is noted for his fishing, even on Christmas Day one year while the family was together, he was fishing. We turned out really well, imperfect parents and all. A simple grace, thank you God for all you have done for us.   God bless, LVZ.