We all hear eating meals around the table as a family is something we all “should” do. But do we have vision for all that time can be for our families?
Let’s look at the dining room table of the King’s family through a brief glimpse in this progression of three quotes, found in chronological order, extracted from David Collins’ Not Only Dreamers: The Story of Martin Luther King Sr. and Martin Luther King Jr.
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“Such topics were brought openly to the King dinner table each evening. With growing passion and purpose, Daddy shared his attitudes and feelings. He challenged each of his children to share their own reactions.”
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“Although M.L had listened often to his father at the dinner table as Daddy King complained of the lack of action achieved by blacks in the Atlanta community, the boy now began to hear clearly what the man was saying. Monologue became dialogue. Questions were asked. Answers were suggested and discussed.”
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“Daddy King looked up, his eyes somewhat blurred from the realization that the twenty-five-year-old kneeling before him was considerably more than his son now. He was a man, an independent follower of God, taking his orders from the Lord as he understood them. Daddy closed his arms around M.L.’s shoulders. ‘Ah, boy, how many dreams we both have had. How many lie before us . . . ‘ M.L. nodded, feeling closer to his father than he had in a long time. ‘But we are not only dreamers, Daddy. We are doers. In that, you have led the way.’”
For the King family, the dinner table became the place of stories, painful stories, passionate stories, personal stories.
It was where father and mother introduced their children to an imperfect world, not as passive observers, or even just dreamers, but as doers actively engaged in the process of providing a better world for their children. By doing, those very children were invited young into a world where they did, could, and would make a difference.
We owe our families this gift and I agree with the King family that the dining table is the best place to give it.
In ancient human cultures, the dining table was the altar, the place where people gathered to minister to deity. In healthy modern families, it still serves the same function: the gathering place around which we sharpen and examine the life offerings our family is making to our God.