My Secret For Having More Fun With Your Family
Does your family spend a lot of quality time together….on their phones? Or Ipads or tablets? Sometimes I look around when everyone is plugged in the matrix and wonder if I can count it as family time. I mean everyone is happy doing their own thing, watching their own show or playing a game. And it is hard, especially if you have different aged kids to find something that everyone likes. I have four kids with the youngest in elementary school and the oldest in high school. Even finding a movie for a family movie night is pretty challenging. Well on today’s episode of Faith Habits, I’m going to let you in on one of my best secrets for building a fun, quality time faith-habit with your family.
What do you do on the weekends? I know they are filled with getting the groceries and doing the laundry and just keeping up before diving back into the week on Monday, but we all have at least a little more time on the weekends. This is time that can be used to build relational connection and have fun as a family - all together.
Just to encourage some family fun, I have created my top ten list of our favorite family boardgames. I’m wondering how many of them you have played? Or if you need a list of some new ones there might be a few on there that you don’t have. You can check in out at lisatoney.com/gamenight
Do you have some family traditions that you love? I can think back and at an early age my parents and grandparents built in a tradition of playing cards when we had family get-togethers. My Grandpa Huber died when I was in 5th grade, so I didn’t have a long time to know him, but I do remember sitting at a table playing cards with him and watching him wiggle his ears! I thought that was so fun. I’ve never known anyone else who can wiggle their ears. Do you? But I also remember playing games like Euchre, Hearts, and Oh Heck….I’m pretty sure Oh Heck had a different name…but that is how it got passed down to us.
Usually it would be after a holiday meal - times like Thanksgiving or Christmas or Easter or the 4th of July. Those were always our big ones where we would gather with family. My Dad loved to play cards and I remember he even made up a super easy game for me and my sisters when we were too little to know all the numbers on the cards and learn strategy. He called it red and black and we just had to follow the red or black color or change the color with the same number…..kind of an early predecessor to UNO.
My parents had a little closet they dedicated to board games. We often would get one new game for Christmas and add to our collection. Games like Monopoly, Life, Uno, Clue, Candyland, and Chutes and Ladders were some of the early games my sisters and I would play together.
Later when I got married my husband and I would have epic game nights of Setters of Catan. Or we’d host Murder Mysteries and play a good ole game of Who Done It.
I grew up playing games and not realizing all the benefits that come along with playing cards and boardgames.
Games are good for your brain. They help you develop cognitive skills such as decision making, higher level strategic thinking, and problem solving. They teach you how to take turns and wait for your turn. They can teach you how to be part of a team and negotiate with others. They also provide an opportunity to take risks with low stakes. Taking risks with low stakes is a really good skill to practice so that you learn in an environment that is safe and you don’t lose money or possessions. Games teach you how to learn rules and how to communicate with others. They even teach you social skills while you interact with others.
I had no idea that card games and board games were doing all these things while I was growing up or engaging with games with friends. I just knew they were fun.
Today we are talking about a faith habit of fun and building a quality time tradition within your family or friend culture.
Faith Habits can be fun! They don’t have to be spiritual in a serious way all the time. God created fun and I believe He loves it when our family and friends have fun with one another.
Ecclesiastes 8:15 So I recommend the enjoyment of life, for there is nothing better on earth for a person to do except to eat, drink, and enjoy life.
Jesus himself said that he came so that we could have an abundant life. That is a fun life-giving life. Now there are definite times to work, and other times to rest, and other times to have fun.
I used to walk with a dear friend that was a few years ahead of me in life. She told me about how she started to build a game night culture in her family. They’d have candy and play board games. I thought this was amazing because she is a pretty big health nut so I didn’t even know she’d let her kids have candy! She told me so many fun stories of how they’d laugh and negotiate and have epic battles. My kids were still pretty little at that time but I determined to try and start a family game night tradition.
I declared Friday night family movie night and Saturday night family game night. For each I’d make popcorn and get everyone in the same room doing the same thing. Family movie night got harder as the kids got older because some of them graduated out of animation and the youngers didn’t want anything too scary.
But game night we could do. There are so many games that are great for kids and adults of all ages. We don’t always play every weekend, but most weekends we do, and it is so fun.
Building a fun habit of a game night in your family can be great for so many reasons. It gives your kids the stability of knowing and planning for quality time together. It teaches your kids to get along with each other and it definitely works on patience skills of the parents! Board games and card games also are great opportunities for learning sportsmanship celebrating with the winner and learning how to lose graciously. It is also a great opportunity to teach the winner not to gloat or brag but be supportive of the other players.
Proverbs 17:22 A joyful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.
I just love how Scripture talks about joyful hearts and having fun! Joy bubbles over into smiles, laughter, high fives, fist bumps, and encouragement. That is definitely something that I want more of in my family!
Not to mention that when we have fun, it relaxes the environment. It relaxes our bodies and calms anxiety. Laughing sends more oxygen to the brain and triggers our endorphins to help us feel more positive about ourselves and others. That means we are building positive memories about our families. That is why faith habits of fun are so great. Laughing lowers our blood pressure, relieves stress and improves our mood. Having fun is healthy for you and your family!
I love a scheduled game night that our family has come to look forward to. Now the hard part is which game to choose! Before my Dad went home to be with Jesus, he actuall carved a wooden game board for me and for each of my kids. He had no idea that the summer after he finished those his body would be wracked with cancer. What an incredible blessing to have that custom board game as a family heirloom now!
Of course we always allow for unscheduled game times and we’ve carved out a space from an old TV cabinet to keep our game closet. I’m always on the lookout for games that my big family of six can play that works for elementary through high school. Some games only allow for four players, so I’ve learned to figure out if it will work if I have two sets to expand it to allow for more players or not.
I would absolutely love to hear from you what your favorite board games or card games are. Did you grow up with a game culture? What game would you recommend to our Faith Habits community? Put it in the comments belows! I can’t wait to hear them - and play them!
F-U-N. What a glorious word. We all love having fun, but sometimes we just get way too busy. We work too much or we are too stressed. Or we are just set in our routine. Fun is important. It is something that we need. It is something that God created for our good. Some of us are really good at spontaneous fun and others of us need to plan a little more fun into our lives and schedules. Plan a little fun into your schedule with your family with a routine game night. Maybe once a month or maybe once a week. I’ve got a great list of games to get you started. Head on over to LisaToney.com/gamenight and find one to try!
Pop some popcorn, make some hot chocolate or lemonade, maybe bust out some special treats and put all the tech away. Talk, laugh, cheer, and learn together how a family game night or a friends game night can make a huge difference in building intentional quality time together.
Thanks so much for joining me today for Faith Habits. I always love to get a chance to spend a few minutes with you championing Faith Habits to encourage you to stand firm in your faith and bring Jesus to your people.
Fight the good fight. Love boldly. Grace and Peace friends, until next time.
