“Wow, you guys must like board games” is a phrase I hear any time someone enters our home for the first time. Greeting anyone entering the front door is a whole bookshelf of board games, and even more tucked in a corner next to it. Of course their suspicions are confirmed if they enter my kitchen and see, yes, another bookshelf of board games. What’s the big deal, and why are they so important to our family?
Pain and family time
The thing that first drew me to board gaming was my chronic pain. I found myself more and more unable to go and do with my family, and with little else to do together we found ourselves watching TV more and more. While enjoyable, I finally got tired of is merely sitting in a room together and started looking in to what else we could do that would allow us to actually interact. The perfect solution was board games.
Not your mama’s Monopoly
When people think of board games, things like Yahtzee or Monopoly spring to mind. However, just as televisions and cars have evolved for the better, so too have board games vastly improved over the familiar stock in Walmart’s toy department. Today, board games are a booming industry with an incredible amount of innovation and variety.
- You can compete against one another to be the strongest movie monster and dominate Tokyo, run the most efficient farm, or grow the best bamboo garden for the Japanese emperor and his new panda
- Work as teams to figure out obscure clues before anyone else, sink the enemy submarine, or figure out who amongst you is a traitor
- Fight together against a horde of zombies, take down a supervillain as a team of heroes, or stop deadly diseases from wiping out the world’s population.
There seems to be no end to what board game creators come up with, and dozens of fantastic games are released each year. Needless to say, my family has been able to enjoy a host of fun, challenging, and interesting games together. However, board games have had far more value than simply entertaining us.
Spiritual value
As a husband and father, I’m always looking for ways to lead my family, growing them and challenging them both spiritually and in general life experience. Over several years, board games have presented some unique and valuable opportunities for all of us, letting us deepen our faith while having fun doing it.
Learning to win and lose regularly
One rule we established early is that you are required to be a good winner and loser of a game. Being excited is fine, as is being disappointed at a loss, but we’ve all made sure we keep winning and losing in perspective. Winning a game can easily become idolatrous, being seen as something that will bring ultimate satisfaction if we can have it.
After playing literally hundreds of games, we’ve all been able to see what winning and losing has to offer. It feels good to win, but that 2 minute thrill doesn’t beat the fun we’ve all had over the past 20-60 minutes as we compete against each other, lovingly hurling threats and insults as we enjoy our time together. Win or lose, we’ve learned that our attitudes at the end of a game can determine how everyone feels as they walk away from the table, not to mention affect our excitement at playing together in a day or two.
So board games haven’t just made us good sports, but they’ve dispelled the illusion that our overall happiness is determined by how we perform against others.
The value of logic and reason
One of the greatest things I want to teach my kids is to value logic and reason. Our minds play a huge part in our faith, keeping us firm in our faith far more than our emotions ever could. I want to teach them the role of cause and effect, understanding how their actions now will have consequences later. It’s important to me that they see the difference between what feels right, and what makes the most sense. Enter a shelf of strategy games.
Each day, my two oldest are required to play a strategy game. In addition to the first point, the goal is to teach them the value of challenging their minds and learning to think effectively. Whether it’s a classic like chess or something more unknown like Tak, each day they are taught to pit their minds against one another by trying to formulate plans, react to surprise situations, and work to understand the person across the board from them.
If we are to love God with all our minds, I want my family to embrace things that will grow and challenge them. As they continue to grow, they will be continually challenged to make their family’s faith their faith. I don’t want them to accept the things of God based on emotion or tradition, but because they’ve been equipped to think for themselves and realize that Christ does, in fact, make the most sense. And as the years have gone on, I’ve been so encouraged to see my kids approach things in life from a logical standpoint, able to identify problems and see past their emotional responses because they spend every day growing their minds.
A means of hosting others
My wife and I aren’t the best hosts. We love God’s people, but neither of us are naturally gifted in opening our homes and stirring up community with other believers. However, not being gifted doesn’t excuse us from honoring Christ, and that’s where board games have been an excellent way for us to bond with others in more lighthearted ways.
As we’ve become known as “that family who loves board games,” people have become open to coming over and enjoying a game with us. Some have even caught a love of board games, buying their own or trying to make plans to play again in the future. It’s become an excellent way of fostering community, giving us an anchor to welcome others into our home and develop conversations and friendships with others.
Thanks to our familiarity with winning and losing, board games let us create a friendly environment for others. Whether playing competitively or cooperatively, people rarely need to worry about a game in our home turning hostile because of our desire to win. It’s important for us that everyone has fun during a game while everyone tries their best to win.
Board games have enabled us to make friends and have conversations with people we may not have otherwise. Whether saved or unsaved, board games create an opportunity to invite others into the home, enjoying a shared experience that can lead to some important conversations in between games.
A family of board gamers
Board games have become a major part of our lives. We play them during dinner, over long weekends, at family events, and even during hospital stays. They aren’t central to our lives, but they certainly make up a large part of our shared memories. I’ve been so thankful that board games have given us a way to spend time together, despite my chronic pain. Most importantly, I love how God can use something so unlikely for His glory.
