Praying over empty plates

When I was in seminary, I became close friends with another seminary student from India. My friend, Brother Sankya invited me to have dinner with his family and a visiting missionary from India. I remember asking at one point before the food was on the table if we should go ahead an offer thanks. The missionary asked me why we should pray over empty plates. The point he made was this, "if we pray over empty plates, what are we asking the Lord to bless?" I'm going to let that sink in a minute. Sometimes we try to get the ceremony out of the way so that we can hurry up and start eating. Kind of like leaving out the third verse on hymns, but that is another blog. We all too often try to avoid the good parts of life. What I'm talking about is really thanking God for the blessings He has given us, instead of the quick 'preciate it, before we start wolfing down a cheeseburger. God is really good, and it's worth taking the time to say thank you.