Since you now know (thanks to my last post) that our family is a bunch of competitive game-playing crazies, I might as well tell you about what we simply refer to as “the book”. It’s not enough that we thrive on beating each other, but we have to keep track of it. We don’t keep a record of every game we play — just those we feel most competitive about :)
I am the keeper of the book, and I make the marks. (Could that be a clue as to who is the most competitive?) The idea for keeping a book actually had its roots in our early card-playing days (30 years ago now!) with our long-time friends Matt and Ruth. Ruth kept that book — also a little spiral notebook. I guess you could say I learned my bookkeeping skills from her :)
To me, keeping a record of wins and losses is just part of the fun of playing games with family. We played Blokus for the first time with Kristin and Shawn during spring break, and when I wanted to start a page in the book for that game, Shawn thought I had lost my mind. After all, you don’t even play on teams in Blokus. He said we didn’t need to keep track of everything, but Kristin seemed to agree with me. Guess it’s easy to see who the blood relative is :) As it turned out, we caved in and didn’t keep records for Blokus. Good thing, too — I didn’t do that well on that game :)
Shawn’s right, though. There are some things we shouldn’t keep track of. You know, things like mistakes and offenses. The apostle Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 13:5 that love “keeps no record of wrongs.” None of us would probably be so blatant as to keep a book and mark down the times that someone offends or hurts us, but if we’re not careful to forgive, before we know it, we may be keeping a book in our hearts.
God shows us a better way. When we ask Him for forgiveness for our wrongs, our sins, He freely gives it and washes them away. Scripture tells us that “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9 KJV) In fact, in Jeremiah 31:34b the Lord says, “I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.” When God forgives, He graciously forgets. What a blessing!
Are we keeping track of some things we shouldn’t? Let’s be careful about the books we keep. Someone might even be learning bookkeeping skills from us.
*Photo by my husband Don
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