I talk a lot on here about listening for that still small voice of inspiration from the God. Recently I felt inspired to add something to our weekly routine. We already have Family Movie Night Mondays. The new inspiration was to add in a second night for family board game and devotion time. Tonight was the first of them and I wanted to share a few interesting nugget nuggets.
First, a really interesting thing happened. For whatever reason Luke was super drained/tired when I arrived home from work. His mind was naturally looking for a relaxing recharge so he quickly started a sales pitch on why tonight would make a great night for us to watch another movie… with a 30-minute short show being his secondary bargaining position. On top of this, for whatever reason I could tell Ben really didn’t want to sit down and play a game either. I think he was hoping, if Luke failed at his movie pitch, for additional outside play time. This time I felt I should stick to my guns so after dinner we sat down to play a game together. Luke got the pick this inaugural week (my “you lost this negotiation because this is not a democracy” consolation prize). And you know what…….. it was awesome. Everyone had an amazing time and they even begged to play another round.
Second, I stopped them any time they started to try and do anything else while waiting for their turn. Isn’t our culture amazing? Even young children at this age, not even armed with “constant Facebook/news/sports feed in your pocket”, are already wired to “optimize” every moment of the day. No wonder we have so much trouble believing in, let alone hearing, that still small voice of inspiration from God. Each time I told them that they were to focus on being “present” in this moment. The result was not only a better game, but more genuine family time.
Third, during the devotion time we discussed Spiritual gifts because prophecy and related topics had come up earlier with Christina during homeschooling. This is a great example of one of those annoying things where kiddos ask the questions you think you have thought through, but really you just quit thinking about it at some point. Anyway… a couple of things that stood out to share with you all was the benefit of including personal stories of people we knew (helped the kiddos relate to our day) and also presenting current views and example church denominations who feel differently on how (whether) these gifts operate today. I would also suggest you continue to ask God to show you these spiritual blind spots so you can begin/continue to wrestle with them.
That is it for tonight. I hope you night was as awesome with your nuggets as the very first Kelley Family Board Game & Devotion Night was here. Here is to many more…