"...And Those Who Prepared It"

When we pray to ask God to bless food, we often also ask Him to bless those who prepared the food. However, there is one main exception to this traditional practice. We don't usually as God to bless those who prepared the food when "those who prepared the food" are ourselves. Case in point, when I ask God to bless my breakfast, I always ask God to bless whomever prepared my breakfast, unless that person is me.

I wonder why that is. We don't generally have any trouble asking for blessings for ourselves under other circumstances, and we have no trouble at all asking God to bless other food-preparers. I suppose it could be a form of humility, not insisting on being blessed for our efforts, but there are ways to humbly request the sorts of blessings that such service normally affords those who perform it. When people attend service projects, the person offering the invocation or benediction generally prays for all of the participants to be blessed, including themselves. And when multiple people work together to prepare a meal, the person who prays over the meal generally asks God to bless all those who prepared it, even if they were one of them. We have no trouble asking for blessings for ourselves in personal prayers, and we have no trouble asking God to bless us as part of a group, but we don't normally ask God to bless us individually when we are praying on behalf of a group, even when we would request such a blessing on a different individual, had they been the sole preparer of the meal.

I would guess that we feel a social faux pas in requesting blessings for ourselves while speaking on behalf of others. I can mostly understand that. But at the same time, if we would have asked God to bless those who prepared the food if they weren't us, why would we hesitate to ask God to bless "those who prepared the food" when that's us? I don't see that as selfishness, but as consistency and perhaps as an acknowledgement that something good has been done (by us). Humility doesn't, or shouldn't, require us to disregard the facts or sweep ourselves under the rug.

We can honestly, truthfully acknowledge when we do something good, and we can acknowledge that God typically blesses those who do good. When we prepare food, for ourselves or for others, I personally see no convincing reason why we shouldn't ask God to bless us.