Due Thanks

September 2026

Dear Friends

What do you do before you eat?  Wash your hands and sit at the table?  Look at the food on your plate?  Open your mouth?  Yes, but what else?

What did the Lord Jesus do?  He said thank you: “Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke the loaves. Then he gave them to the disciples …”  Matthew 14:19 

It’s good to thank the person who cooked and served your meal.  And it’s good to thank God, because it’s all a gift from him.  God created through Jesus a world full of food, and then gave us the ability to plant and harvest, to husband and butcher, to prepare and cook.

What happens when you don’t thank mum or whoever cooks the food in your house? That’s not being fair to her; it says that we don’t appreciate her hard work.  And so it damages your relationship with her.

What happens when we don’t thank our Heavenly Father for our food?  We damage our relationship with Him as the generous provider of everything who deserves our thanks.  For, through Jesus, he sustains the universe from moment to moment and nothing would otherwise continue to exist.

Here’s a prayer (or ‘grace’) that you could pray before a meal:

Dear Father in Heaven,
Thank you that, through Jesus, you have given us this good food to eat.
Amen.

Maybe you live in a home where God is not thanked or you go to a school where prayers are not said.  You could ask someone, “Would it be OK if we thank God for this meal before we eat?”  And if it’s not OK you could thank your heavenly Father quietly without a fuss.

And if you’re the head of your household then I think it’s your responsibility to make sure that all those who ought to be thanked are thanked.  It’s never too late to put that right.

Sincerely

Graham Burrows