How long has it been since you turned off the TV, cell phones, I-pods, computers, gaming systems and all the other flashing flickering, whizzing and whirling techno-gadgets that so discretely absorb our “free time”? Like a thirsty sponge lying on the sands of a smoldering hot desert at high noon absorbs the scarcest molecule of moisture out of the air, good, ol fashioned, high quality, family time is becoming more and more endangered every passing day.

How long has it been since you gathered as a family; dad, mom, brother, sister, Fido, hamster, kitty or gecko, sat down around the coffee table, kitchen table, picnic table or even on the living room floor and spent some time together playing a good board game?

I know, you are probably thinking, “I would be BORED to tears!” Or, maybe you would find yourself having the time of your life with the people most dear to your life.

Growing up I can remember such great times when we would sit around the table and one of my brothers or me would say, “Soooorrrrrryyyyy” as we would turn our game piece into a marshal arts expert, complete with sound effects and knock or should I say launch a poor unsuspecting game piece off the board and across the room. At which the whole family would erupt into laughter. Those were some really fun times in my life, before we all got busy.

There is something to be learned by coming together as a family and spending time away from the world’s distractions. Being distracted from distractions, I think would be a good way to describe this time of connection I’m talking about. Not only have I found great satisfaction in reliving those moments but I’ve taken the time and energy to implement the same principles in my own family.

In a culture when our time is blatantly robbed from us I think we need a revival of uninterrupted, unadulterated, undistracted family connection time, aka “Game Night”.

It doesn’t matter how busy you think you are, whether you’re a parent of a teen or child. It doesn’t matter if you are a child or a teen, husband and wife, we need uninterrupted, undistracted family time. I’ve gleaned and been able to apply many meaningful, helpful and spiritual applications to myself and my children through the illustrations I’ve gotten from board games, which will be the topic of a series I’ll be starting, “Spiritual Applications, The Bored Game”. I’ll be using some of my favorite board games we used to play and we’ll see what we can learn from them. I want to encourage you to check back from time to time to read each article as they’re updated, but in the meantime, don’t forget to pull one of those games down off the shelf in your closet, blow the dust off, turn the cell phones off and see what treasures await you and your loved ones.