Minute to Win It Family Home Evening

Amara was in charge of family home evening this week, but since we were traveling home on Monday (New Years Day), she didn't have a chance to take her turn.  She was grumbling at the dinner table about how she always gets skipped, which is not the case, but it has happened occasionally.  I let her know that she was more than welcome to do her family night tomorrow (Tuesday), which is what I believe she really wanted to hear without having to ask.  A smile spread across her face and she let us know that she has a great idea for the activity- minute to win it games!  Amara's FHE planning often, if not always, begins with an idea for the activity, and I must say, I always enjoy it.  I reminded her that she needs to remember to plan to teach us something as well, which she assured me she would.

So, after grandma got home from work and ate, we began family night.  Amara had pulled the piano bench into the center of the room, there was a plate with Reeses Pieces on it and another empty plate sitting 5 feet away on a tall Christmas tin.  She handed us each a straw, and one by one we took turns.  She would turn over the minute sand timer and the goal was to transfer 5 candies from the plate to the other plate across the room using only the straw to create enough suction to move the candy.  Steve went first and he exceeded the goal and we laughed at him because he snorted his way through.  Little did we know that he did awesome compared to what all the rest of us were about to do.  I was second to last and I barely got 2 on the plate.  It was way harder than I had anticipated.  I was laughing because of how shocked I was at the difficulty.  P.S. I got last place.

The other game Amara prepared was she gave us a popsicle stick and we had to bite on one end and then stack 7 dice on the other end.  It was also challenging because you had to make it all the way through the full minute for the stacked dice to count.  If you dropped it,  you could start over.  Steve did really well, again, but at the last second, the dice all came crashing down.  He thought we should've changed the rules.

After the games Amara admitted she couldn't think of any lesson related to the games and that the point of this family night was to have fun! "So... I guess we could just read some scriptures." she said.

Steve piped in, "I know how we can relate it!"  Steve said that in life sometimes we're dealt a difficult task, but it is important to keep going, and try again when you fail.  Ultimately, we've got to endure to the end if we're going to "win."  I told about how when I began the candy transfer game and discovered the difficulty of it for myself, I had to learn to just keep going because I kept failing.

Jesus gives us endless chances to get up keep going when we fail, as long as we're willing to keep trying.  I also think it's important to try and not get too discouraged when things don't go our way or we don't perform our best, we need to just pick up our candy and keep trying.  Also, comparing our best to someone else's best is a welcome mat for disappointment.  We need to try OUR best and the Lord will make up the rest! 

Bet you didn't know how spiritually enlightening minute-to-win-it games could be!