A huge part of growing up in my house were family games at the kitchen table. I'm thrilled to see that my brother and his wife have carried on this tradition. Last night we celebrated by niece's 8th birthday and ended the night with an exciting game of "Aggravation". You start out with your 4 men in "base"; by rolling a six or a one you are able to bring a man onto the playing field and work your way around the board, attempting to bring each one home before an opponent knocks you back to base. Kinda like an old-school version of the popular game "Trouble", sans the popping dice.
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But we Pluim girls don't tend to play this game in the traditional, dog-eat-dog, looking out for #1 sense. Me and my two trusty nieces are always quick to form our girl-power alliance with one clear and concise directive in mind: GET DAD! We go out of our way to avoid knocking each other off and are quick to point out how someone else's fortunate roll of the die can be enabled to prevent my brother from having any hope of possibly winning the game. So after about 45 minutes of play, all us ladies have at least one or two men safely home, while my brother sits with ALL his men still in base, earnestly praying for the correct role to at least get him back in the game.
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Of course this situation has the potential to be extremely negative; I think many of us would become outraged in protest, claim unfairness and perhaps even leave mid-game in disgust. Not my brother! He keeps cheerfully playing, joking with threats of a days rations of nothing but bread and water should his daughters continually plot against him, as he laughs and rolls again and again. He sees that his daughters are learning teamwork. They are improving their abilities to strategize. They're forming bonds with their aunt. He's not playing to win. He's not even playing to do well. He's playing for the love of his kids and the potential learning and growing that they will experience because of the folly he himself has to undergo.
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I sometimes see life giving us the raw deal that my brother got last night; we can't seem to get anywhere; everything we do leads us back to square one; we try and try but never get ahead; all those around us are prospering, advancing, winning and we are stuck where we are. We take a new job with hopes of advancement and increase, but end up staying right where we are, season after season. We join a rec sports team in hopes of winning a trophy at the end of the season but come in last place. We start a new program in school with the intention of gaining a degree, but life takes us in other directions and we're unable to complete it.
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Jesus shared some great wisdom about coming in last place in Matthew 19:28-30: “Truly I tell you, at the renewal of all things, when the Son of Man sits on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and many who are last will be first". One of the things I've learned from this is it doesn't matter whether we win or lose, or even if we finish...what matters is whether or not we are pursuing God! If we take a new job or play a sport simply with the intent of winning, it doesn't matter if win. It's meaningless!
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But if we do all that we do with the sole intention of following Jesus and furthering His kingdom, we will be winners, regardless of what position the world places us at. If we're doing it for God, it doesn't even matter if we finish. The lives of those around us will be impacted in ways that we can't even imagine, God will be glorified and His love will shine through us. In light of that, "winning" seems a little trivial, doesn't it!
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If we want to truly be winners we need to make Jesus the first and the last - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SjuWXqEjys - listen and be blessed!
Awesome. Thank you, Adrienne!
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