Football & Fellowship

Admittedly, Fred and I don't watch football. He is not into sports, rather his vices are cars and guns. But, each year, when Super Bowl rolls around it seems like it is almost a requirement as an American to watch the game. Since we just got a HDTV, and was FINALLY able to get the satellite company to hook up the new service, we thought it would be fun to have people over to watch the game (well...really to fellowship, with football being the excuse to have the get-together.) Lots of our friends already had plans, so we had one family come over to enjoy the evening with us. God definitely knows what He is doing, because the one family that came over are about as into football as we are (they like to watch the commercials too!)

But, we had a wonderful time talking, catching up on life, and having some adult conversations that were able to last longer than 30 seconds (because our kids were in the bedroom playing together.)

Every time we have people over, we talk about how we need to do it more often. The same way when you see friends that you haven't talked to in a while and end the conversation with "we need to get together for lunch soon." I can't even count how many lunch dates that should be on my calendar right now for making that exact statement to friends. It isn't that I don't have good intentions, it is more like life just happening and days flying by without the time (or really the discipline) to make those lunches happen.

A good friend recently told me that life is too short not to go through it with friends. The challenge is to make the time for my friendships, because like any other relationship, it takes time and effort to establish and maintain good friendships so that they continue to grow.

There are always reasons why I can't - kids, family obligations, church, work, volunteering, etc., etc., etc. Those things will always be there and will never change, but my friend was right - life is so short and it is so much better when you share it with good friends. It is definitely worth making the time to cultivate my friendships, as well as being a reality check and reminder for me about what is really important in life...and it isn't whether I have the cleanest house on the block. I'm going to make it a priority that by the end of this week I will get some of those long overdue lunch dates scheduled.

By the way, we did watch the last 12 minutes of the Super Bowl game and it was well worth it. We both wanted the Giants to win since they were the underdog - and WOW, what a game!!!!