Over the weekend, our family visited with our friends, David and Lizi , for a unique purpose. As a child, David's mother taught him how to be a gentleman using the book, Emily Post's Etiquette. Lizi grew up in England, where she also learned etiquette. We noticed their impeccable manners a few weeks ago when David and Lizi joined us for Passover dinner.
Since the fine art of proper etiquette is no longer regularly taught or found in today's American culture, we asked David and Lizi to teach us appropriate "table manners". They graciously answered our request with an invitation to dine at their home this past Saturday. Every detail of the evening was carefully and wonderfully planned!
The table was beautifully was set with a lovely flower arrangement:
Each place setting was also tastefully decorated and logical. Each utensil had a purpose. Most of the dinnerware and flatware used to belong to David's mother:
We learned general manners, such as how to use our flatware, how to pass the food, and to whom we should first speak. Our meal was very delicious and consisted of five courses: soup, main course, sherbet (to cleanse the palate), salad, and dessert. At the very end of the meal, we each got a finger bowl to wash our hands:
After dinner, we enjoyed some live, classical music and conversations centered on the Lord:
The evening closed much like it began with thankful hearts and prayers to God for His provision and goodness. Proper etiquette is not as difficult to learn as I imagined. As David said, "It's about common sense and putting others ahead of yourself"."Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others." -Philippians 2:1-4
