Day 327- An Inquisitive First

Today was church day.  It seemed to me that we had an unusually blessed day at church.  One of our ladies gave a dynamic testimony, we had good music, a family joined our church, and we had a guest speaker tonight that challenged us to be the church God wants us to be.

None of those are "firsts" for me. Today, I went to a couple of the children's Bible Study classes and asked them what they liked to do for fun with their family.

I was interested in what they would say.  I asked kids in ages from about 5th grade down to kindergarten.  Here are a few of their answers:

• Watch movies together
• Play guitar hero (I asked if this was a entire family event I was assured that it was)
• Play football
• Sing
• Go out to eat
• Walk through the woods
• Go hunting (I know this family and it is an entire family event)
• Play X-Box (This was one of the most popular answers)
• Play Wii
• Go bike riding
• That is hard because we have a baby at our house (classic answer)
• Go to Maw Maw's house

When I was in the younger class, one of the class members said, "Give thanks to God." I think due to the fact that I'm the preacher that became a very popular answer.  All of a sudden, "Give thanks to God" was the thing almost everyone liked to do for fun in their families.

I will confess to a bit of an ulterior motive today.  I plan to preach on how to have an awesome family one week from tonight.  One of the characteristics of an awesome family that I will talk about is that awesome families have fun together.  It is easy to forget this.  Everyone is busy and has important things to do. If you are too busy to have fun with your family, you are too busy.  Having fun with your family is a very important thing to do. It may not sound very spiritual to you, but listen to what the wisest man in the world of his day said.  It was so good that God put it in the Bible in Ecclesiastes 8:15.  Solomon wrote (NLT), " So I recommend having fun, because there is nothing better for people in this world than to eat, drink, and enjoy life. That way they will experience some happiness along with all the hard work God gives them under the sun."  Did you realize that part of following Jesus is having fun with your family? That may not sound like the most spiritual thing in the world, but it is very healthy for families to have fun together.

During his week of Thanksgiving, don't forget to have some good fun together.  When people laugh together, it draws them closer together.  Why not ask the people in your family what they enjoy doing together and do some of that?  We played the Wii together tonight (Mario brothers).

Having fun in the abundant life,
Barry

3 things I thank God for today
1. Joel eating wings
2. Danny Singleton
3. Kim's testimony