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There are many times during the week that we are unable to sit around the dining room table and have a meal together with having the busy lives that come with two teenage children at home. It has been nearly two years since the entire family has been able to site down to eat together. Our oldest daughter is serving in the military currently. However, Sunday Dinner has been a tradition in my home since I first started my own family. It is during this time that regardless of what else is going on in our lives, Sunday dinner has represented a time that as a family we bonded. It was our time to talk about the past week and the week that was to come. Many times my eldest has stated many times over the past two years that she can not wait for a Sunday Dinner.

What does it represent? In our family it is more than just a meal. It is the day long events that are important in our family. To us it is almost the same as Thanksgiving every Sunday. The children are involved in the preparation of the food, setting the table, and the overstuffed feeling afterword's. It is a day long bonding event for our entire family that draws us closer and remembering that which is important to us. It is the relationships that are developed and the conversations that ensue that is best represented by Sunday Dinners.

I wish at times that we could have the Sunday Dinner feeling every night when we eat, but then again it would probably loose its meaning if it were daily. I am certain that many discussions may not have happened if it were not for those Sunday dinners. It is here that we have discussed illness, death, birth, spirituality, accolades, disappointment, and joys. It is over Sunday dinner preparations that the conversations with took place with my girls over the wide variety of subjects that mothers and daughters have. It is where I heard of the first boyfriend, the first crush, the first kiss, the first breakup, and the first love. My son shared with me while making biscuits how the effect of his mentor and friend dying truly had on him, how he felt about his grandfathers death, and the fear he has over his sister being in the army.

Not to say these conversations would not have happened if it were not for the Sunday Dinner tradition; however, the tradition of having Sunday Dinner has created a space where each of my children have come to know as their time. They treasure the family time that they have come to depend on. They have come to look at the ritualistic tradition as something that every family does or should do.

Even though today the Internet is the only form of communication on Sunday afternoons with our eldest daughter, that to has become part of our tradition so that in some ways our whole family can connect on an emotional level with each other. Whether it is roasted chicken or a spread of taco salad ingredients, the meal time on Sundays is more than a time to eat.

Learn more about this author, Reverend Ashira Goddard.
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