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What a night we had together last night...not what I expected or planned, but incredible, nonetheless.  My topic for the night was to be the "priority of play" for families.  The focal text for the night was John 10:1-10.  The chairs were removed to help the parents get down on level with the kids - something we don't do often enough.  I then gave every family a roll of aluminum foil.  I had planned on having the kids "sculpt" their family and their homes during my teaching, but the sound of the aluminum foil was much louder than I anticipated...play-dough would have worked much better for that.  So, on the fly, we divided the room and had a contest between the two sides and selected finalists for their artwork and we will judge them tonight.  After the artwork was completed, we then proceeded to have an all-out foil fight between the two sides.  It was awesome!  We laughed from our guts and then cleaned up before I proceeded to move through the focal passage in way to short of time.  God's call for us is to live a more and better life than we often live.  Jesus was not afraid to have fun, to embrace the moment...whether with children or with his adult disciples.  We too, have to spend time having fun and playing with our kids - no matter if they are 1 & 7 like mine, or 11 & 17.  It's on us as parents to make this happen.  To wrap up the night, I pulled out my iPhone and demonstrated the greatness of the phone saber, then Russell, the pastor from Snyder, jumped up and pulled out his iPhone and we had dueling phone saber wars, all to the laughter and cheers of the crowd.  We ended the night with Rich singing his Jason Mraz-like "Help Me" with families arm-in-arm dancing and laughing...and loving.

Great night.