In our family, we have a meal we simply call “The Kendrick Family Meal for Special Occasions”. It's our version of chicken parmesan with just the right blend of chicken, Italian breadcrumbs, tomato sauce, seasonings, and cheese, served with spinach noodles, salad, and cheesy bread. My children are adults now with families of their own, but whenever we're all together, this is the meal everyone requests. It has become part of our family story. Around that table, memories are shared, laughter fills the room, and conversations linger just a little longer.
Family tables have a way of doing that.
Throughout Psalm 23, David describes the Lord as his Shepherd. The Shepherd knows His sheep by name. He leads them to green pastures, restores them when they wander, and walks beside them through dark valleys.
Then the picture changes and the Shepherd becomes the Host. Instead of leading His sheep through the fields, He welcomes them to His table. What a beautiful picture of God's covenant love! He doesn't simply rescue us, protect us, and provide for us. He invites us into fellowship with Himself.
That picture stretches across all of Scripture. God gathered His people around the Passover table and fed them with manna in the wilderness. On the night before His crucifixion, Jesus welcomed His disciples to the Last Supper and gave them a covenant meal to remember His sacrifice. Today, He continues to welcome His people to the Lord's Table, reminding us that His body was broken and His blood was shed so that we might belong to Him. One day we will gather at the Marriage Supper of the Lamb, where our fellowship with Him will be complete.
Every covenant meal proclaims the same wonderful truth:
We belong at God's table because of His grace.
So much of motherhood is spent preparing tables. When our children are young, we cut grapes into tiny pieces and wipe sticky fingers. Later we pack school lunches, celebrate birthdays, host holiday dinners, and eventually welcome grown children—and perhaps grandchildren—back home again.
But the table has always been about more than food.
Some of my favorite family memories happened over ordinary meals. It was around the “Kendrick Family Meal” that our youngest son and his wife announced they were expecting their first child. Around that same table we've celebrated God's blessings, shared disappointments, and laughed until we cried. We have asked for forgiveness, prayed for one another, and talked about what God was teaching us. Looking back, I realize those ordinary meals became some of the sweetest opportunities to disciple our children.
Perhaps that's why God's instructions in Deuteronomy 6 feel so natural. Parents were to speak of His Word as they sat in their homes, walked along the road, lay down at night, and rose in the morning. Faith was never intended to be confined to Sunday morning. It was meant to become woven into the ordinary rhythms of everyday life.
The family table is one of those rhythms.
Family worship doesn't have to be complicated. Read a short passage of Scripture or a Bible story. Ask one simple question. Sing a familiar hymn or chorus. Pray together before everyone leaves the table. Those few minutes may seem ordinary, but over months and years they quietly shape hearts. Around the table, our children learn that God's Word belongs in everyday conversations, that prayer is as natural as sharing a meal, and that worship is woven into the life of the family.
Why? Because that's exactly what our Shepherd does for us. Before we ever gather our children around our tables, Christ welcomes us to His table.
Each Lord's Day, we gather with God's people to worship. We confess our sins, hear God's Word, sing His praises, and come to the Lord's Table. We don't come because we've had a good week or because we've earned a place there. We come as needy sheep who have been graciously invited by our Good Shepherd. There, He reminds us that we belong to Him, nourishes our faith, and sends us back into the ordinary work of loving and serving others.
We spend so much of our lives caring for everyone else that it's easy to believe everything depends on us. But every time Christ welcomes us to His table, He gently reminds us that He is the One who truly provides. He feeds our weary souls before sending us back to care for those He has entrusted to us.
As mothers, we have the privilege of making our tables small extensions of Christ's hospitality. Around them, we offer welcome instead of condemnation, forgiveness instead of resentment, and gratitude instead of complaint. God's Word is offered there to our children instead of the world's wisdom, and prayers that remind them where every good gift comes from.
We cannot protect our children from every disappointment or temptation they will face. But we can faithfully lead them again and again to the places where the Good Shepherd feeds His people—to His Word, to prayer, to worship, and ultimately to Himself. Before we are mothers preparing tables for our families, we are daughters who have been welcomed to the Shepherd's table. Our cups overflow because of His grace. And from that abundance, we joyfully invite our families to experience, in the ordinary moments around our own tables, something of the extraordinary love and welcome of our Good Shepherd.
LIFE-GIVING ENCOURAGEMENT
How might your family table become a place where your children experience not only a good meal but also the grace and hospitality of Christ? What simple rhythm of Scripture, prayer, or conversation could you begin this week?
PRAYER
Gracious Shepherd and Host, thank You for welcoming me to Your table. Thank You for nourishing my soul through Your Word and strengthening my faith as I worship with Your people and come to the Lord's Table. Help me prepare a home where our family table reflects Your grace—a place of welcome, truth, forgiveness, joyful conversation, and faithful worship. May my children come to know that every good gift comes from Your hand and that the greatest invitation they will ever receive is to belong at Your table through Jesus Christ. Amen.
Sherry Kendrick has served as the Family Ministry Director at Covenant Church of Naples in Naples, Florida, for more than sixteen years. She has spent over forty-five years investing in children and families through children's ministry, homeschooling, private education, and public education. Sherry is passionate about helping parents disciple their children through God's Word. She has a lifelong love of children's books and curriculum—so much so that collecting them has become one of her favorite hobbies.
For thirty-six years, Sherry served alongside her husband, Mike, in pastoral ministry in both small and large churches. Since his passing, she has continued to serve the church with a deep confidence in the Good Shepherd's faithful care. She is the grateful mother of three grown children and “Nana” to four beloved grandchildren.
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Sharon W. Betters is a mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, pastor’s wife, and cofounder of MARKINC Ministries, where she is the Director of Resource Development. Sharon is the author of several books, including Treasures of Encouragement, Treasures in Darkness, and co-author with Susan Hunt of Aging with Grace. She is the co-host of the Help & Hope podcast and writes Daily Treasure, an online devotional.
Contact Sharon with comments or questions at dailytreasure@markinc.org.
