Yesterday evening, as I was going to the telephone to call in an order for carry-out from our local restaurant (the only one in our small town), I glanced out the kitchen window and saw a car pulling into the driveway. It was another couple who live nearby and who were on their way to the local restaurant for supper. They wondered if we'd like to join them.
The timing was perfect so, of course, we did. We had a good time of eating and visiting at the restaurant, even being joined by another friend (who is also our pastor) who was eating alone because his wife wasn't feeling well.
The restaurant wasn't overly busy, so the five us of lingered at the table, visiting for awhile. Then the couple who had invited us to join them for supper spent a few hours at our house, playing a rousing game of dominoes.
Dominoes are fun, no matter whose rules you follow, but isn't it amazing how many different sets of rules there seem to be? Every single time we have played the game with someone new, we have been introduced to some variation in the rules.
When six of us attended a Word of Life conference in Schroon Lake, New York last year, we played dominoes together in the common area during breaks in the conference. It never failed but that other conference attendees would stop by our table to watch for awhile and offer opinions on the rules that they thought we should be following.
As I wrote that, I couldn't help but think how something similar plays out in our daily Christian life. We all read the same "Rule Book;" but, somehow, we come up with a lot of variations on how the rules should be applied.
As someone has said about the Christian walk, though, the main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.
Matthew 6:33 says it best: But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness;...
Your post title and the opening paragraph about take-out made me think you were going to talk about pizza. ;)
ReplyDeleteWell darned if you're really going to believe that I only have one friend, Linda, but my CITH* pal mentioned about how much fun dominoes is. I only remember a rather dull game played by two. She also said it's a game played by a group so I'm going to have to learn at least one of the ways to play it sometime.
*I emailed you a couple of photos from that long ago costume party, by the way.. did you get them? It was to the address on your profile page.
Hilary-It's amazing how things that seemed dull to us when we were younger can now be described as "rousing," isn't it? Of course, there was a little tongue-in-cheek humor in that description of dominoes. It IS fun, though. Most people today play Mexican Train Dominoes. Some combine it with a game called Chicken Foot. But be prepared to learn different rules with each new playing partner. Here's a link to an online version of the game, so you can get a little experience with it before you join CITH and friends in playing: http://www.domino-games.com/dominoes-online/mexican-train-dominoes-dillydally.html
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for those photos from days gone by. I loved them, and they did make me smile.
I like to try different games of dominos , but have met some players who can't change. I like think games with the cold moving in it gives us more time to enjoy sharing with friends.My worst Scrabble opponent was a former proofreader for a newspaper.Thank you for such lovely feedback on my blog.
ReplyDeleteOOTP-Mexican Train or a combination of Mexican Train and Chicken Foot are the only domino games that I've played, but I find them fun. You're right that wintertime is a good time to get out the table games and get together with friends. I haven't played Scrabble in years. I should get that game out and try to entice my Hubby into playing it with me.
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