Please, Thank-You, and Pie

Today at MOPS our speakers talked about pantry shopping, meal planning, and a little about teaching our children table manners.  Specifically they talked about how being polite about what is served you.  That eating what is served you and saying thank you is about honoring the other person and treating them with kindness.  After all, the speaker said, eating is relational and Jesus said "Eat what is put before you." (I didn't believe her and had to look it up; Luke 10:8.)

So at dinner I tried to explain it to our children.  We work hard on not letting them be rude, but the idea of it being about treating others with consideration was a slightly new bent.  SnapDragon at first said, "You don't want me to lie, do you!  It is just about speaking the truth."  But I told him you don't have to lie.  You can just be polite and say thank you for this food.  When I mentioned again about it being about the other person and treating them kindly, he totally got it.

Sunflower...maybe not so much.  She said...

"I can give you an example of being polite!  It is saying please and thank you.  Like may I please have a piece of pie?"

Yes, exactly.

"Can I please have a piece of pie?"

No.  But you can have some more noodles.

"I don't like them.  Can I please have a piece of pie?"