Saying grace.

I always pause and thank God for my food and ask Him to bless it for the use and nourishment of my body. If I'm with someone who is not Christian, I quietly pause before I eat and thank God.

I hate it when my food tastes like shit.

No one should foist their religion off onto their dining companions.

R1 Do you think it’s contradictory to give thanks and then to complain about the majority of foods you’re served.

Not necessarily. If you're paying for a product and it's unsatisfactory you are wanting a better product. The only way to make it right is to bring it to management's attention. It isn't right to sit there and say stuff like "this tastes like shit".

R5 If that happens rarely, then it doesn’t bother me. If it’s habitual or even your norm, then in my cview, the problem is your ingratitude and not the food.

If you’re thanking God for “nourishment,” and then saying “this food is not good enough for me. Throw it away and raise your standard,” then you are rejecting the nourishment you were given—a gift—and in my view you have undermined your claim that you’re grateful to God by proving you believe you’re too good to accept what you were given, and in fact wasted it.

Why is your food a gift? Unless you’re a trustifarian or a welfare recipient, you earned your meal!

I'm thankful for my trust fund.

I am thankful for everything I have. I don't have to pause and make a statement for others to see. Nor do I have conversations with some fake god thing. When someone "says grace" around me, I pity them for being so foolish.

I feel the same about you, r9. I pity the unbeliever.

When I was a kid, our parents would make us say grace in restaurants. It was embarassing.

I’m also thankful, and also not a churchgoer and therefore customs like praying before eating are not in my wheelhouse. I do feel like true gratitude doesn’t require public performance, although I can understand how some might feel as if doing it in the home, for example, can entrain children to be conscious of their privileges/blessings/met needs and thankful for what they have. I would think though that if you believe in an omniscient God, you’d think that that God hears your heart and your words are relatively meaningless. What is the spirit of your gratitude? If you say thank you and then behave thanklessly, then your words are meaningless and hypocritical.

My partner and I say a quiet/silent, personal grace before every meal. Even at a restaurant. One should be grateful for the miracle of food. We no longer spend our entire day in pursuit of sustenance. We are so fortunate to have access to clean water and abundant eats. Most of us don’t give two shits about how lucky we are. War, weather, terrorism...these could impact our food supply and our way of life immensely...Always be thankful.

Christoholics are tedious. I say grace by flinging food in their faces.

Bless your heart, R10

I do it at Thanksgiving and Christmas. And yes, I actually do it. You can mock me all you want, but when the Host does that, it's simply respectful to try to follow suit. I don't generally attend services, but when I do, I actually attend. I was raised to be polite and respectful. I had someone make fun of me for genuflecting at a funeral, and I was ready to conk him (hard) in the head. I was raised in a specific faith. I would never, ever mock a Jew or a Muslim for their practices. I know that people don't 'get' Catholics, but why shit on us? (Loaded question). I can't not genuflect at certain points. Or say the Sign of the Cross, or dip my hands in Holy Water. You can't ask people to peel their skins off. It comes as part of our DNA. Just leave us be.