"Good answer, good answer, good answer!"

Well it's official! The weekend of August 20th, the Whittern Family will be winging their way to Orlando, Florida to film the Family Feud.  The enduring show that made such phrases as "Survey says!" and "Good answer, good answer, good answer!" part of our every day vocabulary (well it's part of MY every day vocabulary) will indelibly carve its niche into our family's history.  For the next few weeks, I will try to give you a 'behind the scenes' look at what being on the 'Family Feud' is like.  We're excited, pumped and looking forward to experiencing this as a family.

And why not?  Our family loves to play games.  We love to compete; especially against each other, but against other families...BRING IT ON.  We are not just 'more competitive than most families'...that's too cliche.  We're more competitive than YOUR family!  And no doubt, that starts with me.  I'm not fond of losing.

I can truly say alot of this began with my mom.  As you've probably picked up from previous blogs, she was a little different.  When I was quite young we would play Checkers, Monopoly, Scrabble, Clue, you name it; but unlike some mothers, my mom played to win.  She was good.  And even though you might expect her to go easy on her only child...it didn't happen.  When ever she could (which was quite often), she would beat me like a rented mule! Then to rub matronly salt (not to be confused with Mortonly Salt) in the wound, she would smile innocently, and ask, "Want to play again?"  Unfortunately, I was a pretty sore loser as a child and her glee in winning made me even more frustrated and definitely less pleasant to be around.  However, it taught me a valuable lesson.

Don't lose.

I had roommate at OBU that would routinely go down to the GC (basically the student union) and play ping pong or bumper pool with me.  He never won.  Particularly in ping pong, I would drill him over and over and over again.  It never bothered him.  I didn't get it then.  But now, as I've matured and grown as a man, as a Christian, as a human being...I still don't get it!  It's like people who want to play basketball or cards or WHATEVER and don't want to keep score.  What's the point?  In my mind, that's why I'm playing...score it, judge it, rank me; give me some results.  Allow me to compete.  Then try and stop me from winning.

That's probably why I entered so many speech tournaments in high school, as well as singing contests and songwriting competitions throughout the years...score it, judge it, rank me; give me some results. Go ahead and sit yourself in front of a TV watching a sporting event and wait and see how long before someone walks up and asks, "What's the score?"  Only the Harlem Globetrotters have made a living out of playing a game where the score doesn't matter...but their games are more like Disney On Hardwood than a basketball game, so I can't count that.

So how will we fare on Family Feud?  Well, for one thing, I don't think it's part of the make-up, at least of OUR family, to say, "Good answer, good answer, good answer!" if one of us spouts out a questionable, marginal response.  I suspect that the producers of the show tell you to do it that way.  Maybe they instruct you to be enthusiastic and show support for your fellow family members and their feeble attempts.  I'll let you know.  But around my house if someone blurts out an iffy answer, you're more likely to hear, "Are you kidding me?"  A really stupid answer may get, "What are you smokin'?" or "Is that all you got?"  We try to avoid the 'idiot' word at all costs...but it can be so apropos.  Maybe we'll be the first family to actually shout at each other, "Bad answer, dumb answer, bad answer!"  Trust me...none of our bunch are willing to live with the ridicule involved with a truly 'bad answer'...or worse yet, NO answer at all ...followed by the dreaded XXX sound effect (annoying huh?).

To that end, we've been watching and playing along with the Family Feud each day (or in truth, we'll record several episodes and play them at one sitting on the weekend).  This has been going on for several months now.  In fact, we're starting to even see reruns (of the reruns).  We'll text questions to each other out of the blue.  We'll make random phone calls to Holly in Maui ("Name a place you go for a cheap date!")  We'll play on Facebook.  We'll talk strategy (play or pass?).  We are ready!  And one thing I can assure you...it might not always be #1, but we are prepared to give an answer!

1 Peter 3
15 Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, 16 keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander.

Hopefully our lives demonstrate the 'hope' we have in Jesus.  When that happens, it should generate some curiosity, some interest, some questions.  I'm afraid we all should be concerned about the 'blooper video' awaiting us in Heaven for the lousy answers we've given here on earth (and maybe the lack of questions we were asked!).  And even when we've given 'good answers', if we didn't give them with kindness or 'gentleness and respect', then we don't want that video shown either!

Speaking of 'blooper videos', watch these two guys go for the "Not So Fast Money!"  Hopefully our family will do better than they did.  If not, when we return and you ask me about it, I may say, "I'm not really sure when that's going to air," and then quickly change the subject.  Or I may just not have an answer for you at all ...especially if that's what happened on the show!  More to come...