motd Sunday Aug 7, 2011

[Guest guest]

LET US PRAY

Sunday, 07 August 2011

Boy, the world sure has gone all

high-tech on us, hasn't it? I mean, every place you

look, there's someone on their iPad 1, iPad 2, a

Blackberry, a Laptop or a cell phone complete with

Internet access.

There was a story in yesterday's

news here in Los Angeles about how people are walking

down the streets texting while not paying attention to

where they're going. I'm telling you, these people

are so into their little mini-keyboards that they

don't even bother to look up. Oh, they've just got

to tell their friends about the great sale they found

at H & M! Meanwhile, they're tripping, bumping into

people and maybe you even saw the video of a lady who

fell into a shopping mall fountain because she was so

into her texting. Hey, better pay attention,

America. LOL.

Everybody has these high-tech gadgets nowadays. I'm

talking everyone from mom and dad to the kids. Even

lots of grandparents are into today's new electronic

toys! It's just like The Jetsons! And

because of this fast-paced, gadget-filled world we

live in, American families don't spend nearly as much

time sitting and interacting with each other one-on-one.

You know, like families used to do!

When I was a kid back in New

Orleans, dinner was always served promptly at 6PM.

And if you weren't there, it meant you most probably

had been kidnapped! LOL. But no kidding, we took our

dinner time and, even more important, our family

time very seriously. As we sat down for

dinner, the television was turned off and we all tuned

in...to each other!

There was always plenty of family conversation at our

dinner table. My parents were both very intelligent.

They really kept up on current events. My mother also

got a few of the movie magazines that were popular

back then and read them from cover-to-cover. Oh, she

knew all of the celebrity news. As she was passing

that platter filled with corn on the cob, she might

say, "Oh, Joan Crawford has a new movie coming

out and we're all going to see it next Friday

night."

My father was a big crosswords fan and he might pose a

question to us based on something he'd learned from

that morning's puzzle in the Times-Picayune,

New Orleans big daily newspaper.

Lenny faithfully read National Geographic and

loved telling us about the cool places and things he'd

read about.

And what would I talk about? Hey, you

already know...food! I might talk about a

new recipe I'd seen in one of my father's many

cookbooks. "This weekend, I'm gonna make eggs

benedict for everyone. It'll be great with that

recipe I saw for Hollandaise sauce!"

Dinner would always begin with my father saying grace

and when we finished eating, we'd all pitch in and do

the dishes together.

Well, these days, it's hard to even get the whole

family home at the same time. Let alone enjoying a

meal together...as a family. I'm sure

there's plenty going on in your lives that you and

your family can share that you don't have to text

to one another. How about some quality face-to-face

time with your loved ones, huh?

So when's the last time you and

your family had a good sit-at-home dinner together?

What...how many months? My goodness!

(Do you still know what your family members even look

like? LOL.) Okay, I have a great suggestion for

you. Text or E-mail all of your family members and

let them know that you're going to have a special

dinner for the entire family next Sunday. (You can

just make up a celebration, they'll believe you!

LOL.) Get them there a little early and you can even

invite them into the kitchen to help with the meal

prep and serving. Make it fun!

One of you can take cute pictures of the whole family

in the kitchen or even shoot a little video to upload

later and share on YouTube. Who knows, you could

start a trend!

When dinner is ready, after someone says grace,

everyone will reach for their forks. From

there, it'll be a great family meal together and...some

great family conversation together. Is that a

date?

Hey, when your family-dinner video

goes up on YouTube, maybe it'll inspire families all

around the country to sit down, have a healthy meal

and get to know their wonderful families, all over

again!

Love,