Salad Days

My favorite thing to do at LOGOS is to serve salad. Every week, no matter what the Family Time theme, we serve salad. Well, not on PJ Night when dinner is breakfast. Everyone agrees that salad doesn't go well with waffles and sausage and syrup. 

Instead of putting a bowl of salad on every table to be served family style like the rest of dinner, we make up a huge bowl of tossed salad--mixed greens (those big pre-washed bags), chopped zucchini and tomatoes, croutons and Italian dressing. Nothing fancy. Except for Wacky Wednesday when we threw in some leftover diced apples.

I get to walk around serving it. I try to ask each person by name.

"Salad tonight, David?" "What about you, Micah?"

The Table Parents nearly always say "yes" for a heaping side dish to the other more kid-friendly food on their plate. There are some children that always want salad, some that tentatively ask for "just a little" and others that gesture wildly lest I drop even a small piece of lettuce on their plate. 

I can get around to the nearly 100 people--the 2 year old at the Nursery Table (yes, he always wants salad), the preschoolers, the elementary kids, the middle school youth and all of the adults in under 7 minutes.  It's my favorite thing to do because it gives me a point of contact with so many children, youth, and adults on a weekly basis. Maybe next year I'll offer to serve salad downstairs in the high school dining room too.

I like to address each person by name when I ask (name tags are helpful) and it means they're more likely to look up and respond. If I give a general ask of "who at this table would like salad?" it's usually only the salad eaters who acknowledge me. I want to look into the eyes of every child of God at that table. And have each one look at me. What a gift. 

Apparently this simple tossed salad has become known as "LOGOS Salad" or "Miss Liz's Salad" (that's what the 2 year old calls it at home when his parents try to serve him something else). I love that! Instilling good memories, knowing one another's name, building camaraderie, growing traditions. All in the name of Jesus. Yes, that's LOGOS.