Originally published in The Standard News January 18th, 2018 With all the snow, rain, freezing rain, and cold weather we've been having, you may have spent more time indoors lately. If you've become bored of the winter blahs, why not try playing a board game or card game? As someone interested in writing, it should be no surprise I like a number of word-based games. Here are a few of my favourite games. “Apples to Apples” is a favourite card game of mine. You have two decks of cards. One deck has red cards which contain descriptive words, such as adjectives and adverbs. There is also a green deck with nouns, such as people, places, and things. There are different variations of the game, but the basic gameplay is as follows. Each player is given several red cards, and a green card is displayed on the table. Each person has to place, face down a red noun card they believe would fit well with the green descriptive card. For example, the green card may read, “loud”, and you play the red card labeled “1812 Overture”. Each round one person serves as judge, if the judge chooses the card you played, then you win that round. The first one to reach a predetermined number of winning cards wins the game! Another great word based game is “Balderdash”. In this board game everyone makes up phony, often humourous, definitions for complicated and rarely heard words. Among these fake definitions will be the real one, and everyone votes on which one they think is real. Players earn points both by guessing the correct definition and by having people vote for their fake one. With these points, you can advance on the game board. The first one to the end of the game board path is the winner! My family and I recently played a brand new word based game. It's called, “The game of things”. Similar to Balderdash, you write down something based on a word. In this case, however, you don't write a definition, but rather a response like 'something that is smelly', for example. Instead of guessing what answer is most accurate, you guess who wrote which answer. An excellent game to see how different people think. The real trick comes in, when those who know each other well, try to write answers which sound like someone else's way of thinking. The person with the most correct guesses wins! Whether you are a writer, a reader, or someone else interested in words, try out these word games! You might end up learning a few new words, or a few new things about those you're playing the games with. I hope these games will help cure any winter blues. God bless! Related posts
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What you fear, is what you revere. It is what we allow to influence our behaviour. What you are most afraid of, is what you believe is the most powerful thing in the moment your in, or even in your overall life. We don't like to admit that, because, most of the time, if we honestly looked at what we fear, we'd be repulsed by what we're essentially revering. But if we believe that thing is strong enough to be feared, then we've made that more powerful than God, or whatever we trust, in our minds, and consequently, in how we live our life.
Stress has been known to shorten lifespans. According to NaturalNews.com, stress damages our DNA. Independent.co.uk has even said, “a stressful workplace could take 33 years off your life expectancy”. Wow that's a big deal! Fear leading to stress is damaging to our health, but there is another kind of fear that doesn't bring stress. Proverbs 10:27a says it well, “The fear of the LORD adds length to life.” In the Bible, fear is often used to denote respect, rather than terror. In this light, we see a connection between fear and respect. The difference is, whenever we fear something other than God, it inspires dread and discomfort. When we fear God, it's more a reverence of honour and warmth. It brings respect to God, and comfort to us. The comfort of knowing the most powerful being in life is more powerful than anything that wants to harm us, disarms other kinds of fear. The fear of the Lord is the only fear that leads to comfort. My pastor said something to this effect on Sunday, “When we let go and trust God, we begin to talk about how big God is, instead of how 'big' our problems are.” Remembering to focus on the Lord, not my circumstances or issues, starts a domino effect. First, I remember who my life is really about; God, not me. Second, I remember that He is all-powerful, so if He asks me to do something, I have the responsibility to follow through on it. Responsibility is a good word. It means we've been given the ability to respond. I heard it put quite beautifully, as follows, “God does not call the equipped, He equips the called.” When God asks you to do something, He will give you the ability to respond. Giving God the respect He is due, and following through on what He asks, reminds us how big God is, and how tiny our fears are. This ability is not something we conjure up ourselves. A pastor I once new, named Cindy Peck, once said, “We are not to be problem-oriented people. We're not even to be solution oriented people. We're to be God-oriented people.” In Christ, we find our solutions and answers. That doesn't mean He'll give us all the answers we want, or even all the answers. It means that within Him are the answers. We don't need to know the answers and solutions, we only need to know the one who has the answers and solutions. Because God is the answer and solution to all our problems and fears. It is said there are two kinds of knowledge. There is the knowledge you have retained from your experiences and there is the knowing of who to go to for it when you have no experience yourself. When something is greater than our experience we can respond with fear, or, in reverence, we can go to God who has all experiences within him and knows all things. The Bible says in 1 John 4:18, “perfect love 'drives out' fear.” To have ourselves emptied of fear, we need to be filled with love. Earlier in verse 16, we're told, “God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.” So for us to be filled with love, and depleted of fear, we need God's Spirit living inside of us. The space has to be occupied by something. Do your fears seem like immovable mountains? Then those fears have become your focus. What we focus on drives all our decisions and reactions. Ultimately, what we most focus on, is what we serve. The question is, do you want to serve your fears, or do you want to serve the God who is the answer and solution to all those fears? More than that, the God who sticks closer than a brother! Those of us who are Christians will still be challenged by fear, like anybody else. The difference we have is, we have someone greater than our fears to turn to. So, what are you going to choose to fear, and therefore respect? Will you serve circumstances and problems that come and go, or the God who created us all, and who can fill us with love that drives out fear? As for me, I will fear the Lord. God bless |
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