A Theology of Play?

Our pastor preached a sermon entitled Life’s Too Short To Miss Recess this weekend, and it furthered one of the messages that the Lord has been sending my way over past few weeks. It has to do with me re-learning to have fun, and redefining what fun is.

Among other things, the Lord has been speaking to me about valuing my family. There are many nights of the week that I’m out, not at home when my kids get off the bus, not around to tuck them into bed at night. That’s not good. And there are lots of days when I am at home, but too busy with work stuff, or too preoccupied with my own stuff to be a dad. I find that I am selfish, and that’s not good.

That leads to me reacting wrongly when they do childish things. I get angry, or short-tempered with them. I lose my patience and don’t treat them lovingly.

As you can imagine, this spills over into my relationship with my beautiful, loving wife, too.

I think the answer is pretty simple. I don’t want to over-think this, or make it more complicated than it needs to be.

I need to unplug, to shut the laptop, turn off the TV and the cell phone.

I need to be a husband and father, defined by action—loving my wife and children more than I love myself. I have a fun family, and I want to be part of it!