Ten Star Service

                                                  

At the beginning of the school year we cleaned off our cluttered dining room table and decided to attempt family meals together. Many have already discovered the beauty of family dining, but we’ve been a little slow to join this crowd. For the past few years we’ve generally made due with kids eating in the breakfast area and my husband and I sitting close by at the island. We knew this arrangement wouldn’t last forever, but it’s what we had become accustomed to.

Last year and the year before that the dining room table was my ten-year-old’s school work area, so between homeschooling classroom space, soccer practices, and a traveling husband who is rarely home for dinner we just didn’t give much thought to formal meal time.


Sensing it was time for a change I moved the school work area to the breakfast nook and announced all meals would now be at the dining room table. You might have thought I informed them we were going to Disney World! I had no idea what kind of enthusiasm this decision would generate. From the very moment we made the switch I’ve had four eager meal planners and service attendants vying for their chance to be the one who cooks, sets, serves and cleans. We even have an event planner each evening – because no dinner is complete without a dinner game and Ten Star Service.


At the center of our dinner event planning is a little box given to us a few years ago by some friends of ours (thanks Ferdie & Maria). Inside the box are dozens of little cards that suggest dinner conversation starters, games and ideas for family bonding. Some of our favorites are Word Whisperers, Ten Star Service, Pass the Pepper and Family Star. This is truly the highlight of our dinner. Each evening there is a great deal of discussion that precipitates exactly what we will be doing during dinner besides eating. And I am usually the last to find out just what game we will be playing and what cartoon character I may have to impersonate.


We’ve been laughing a lot lately and many evenings I arrive at a beautifully set table accompanied by a server with a folded towel over his arm waiting to take my order. On these occasions I find my daughters have created menus to go along with the dinner festivities. This is truly as the dinner card would suggest, “Ten Star Service.”


It makes me wonder why we didn’t try this sooner. I suppose we’ve been so busy that we weren’t paying attention – just so caught up in the routine of life.


This past week we were sitting around our newly broken-in dinner table and grabbed hands ready to pray. Just before we started, my six-year-old piped, “It’s like a decoration around the table. Look at our hands! They make a decoration.”


It was then that it struck me. My daughter was right - we were all together. There were no missing ingredients. It was the perfect decoration. Food, dinner games and Ten Star Service aside there is nothing more I would rather my table be decorated with then the faces of the ones I love.

I'm Just Playin'...

What a wonderful invention – the Wii. It affords you the mindless fun of a video game, the unmerited skill of an athlete, and the favor awarded an Olympian upon successful completion of his appointed task.

We are not video game junkies in the Murie household, but we do occasionally succumb to the lure of competition.

One gray Saturday afternoon I observed a commotion coming from the TV room. I walked in to the pleasant hoots and high-fives of my four children. They were congratulating one another for scoring well in target practice.

I stopped and watched as each child in turn swung the Wii remote like a golf club while aiming for one of two targets on a virtual golf course. After awhile the kids turned and convinced both myself and my husband to compete.

We agreed. I was up first and stepped to the tee, club in hand. My first attempt wasn’t bad. We watched as my ball sailed over the first target and landed on the next garnering 50 points for me!

“Good Job, Mom!” they encouraged.

I patted myself on the back and prepared for my next swing. This time the ball flew over both targets – a miss.

“That’s okay Mom, try it again,” sang a chorus of little angels.

I did and struck gold with a perfect swing and a bull’s-eye worth 100 points. The crowd went wild! You would have thought I had won the Nobel Prize – so undeserving, so unexpected. There was jumping, there were high-fives, and there were shrieks of joy! “I could get used to this,” I thought.

I continued the game consistently scoring 25 points here and 50 points there, but every time I hit 100 there was a spontaneous celebration as I was swarmed by my adoring fans. I let myself enjoy the praise and used it to propel me toward the finish. After all, I now had to live up to my children’s great expectations and my ill-perceived potential.

After capturing the high score I left the game pumped up, feeling rather good about myself. In my children’s eyes I was the champion – the conquering hero. How kind they were to lend me accolades that I did not deserve. I recall the look in their eyes. There was no judgment, no jealousy, just unbridled excitement and satisfaction that I had done well.

Oh, that I could turn around and reinvest those smiles and cheers in each of my children as they live and learn, rise and fall come what may.

Perhaps I can prepare for this feat by heeding these words.

“But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you will be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.” Hebrews 3:13

“Pleasant words are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones.” Proverb 16:24