“Honey, If You Love Me, Smile...”

Admit it.  That one sentence may have transported you back to a large multi-purpose room, with “Early American Garage Sale” furnishings, a well-used Ping-Pong table, and funky colors on the walls.  Or, perhaps those walls were decorated by signed Petra or DC Talk pin-ups--or ginormous wall posters of past mission trips and lock-ins.  I’m right there with you.  Sedated in the 80s, baby.

The premise of the "Honey" game, if you can call it that, was for a player to entice (oops, not a very “Youth Group” word) another person of the opposite sex to laugh, giggle, and/or smile, using nearly any means to do so.  Yeah, that’s the perfect game for a room-full of walking hormones, ages 14-18, who come through the doors to “fellowship with their brothers and sisters in Christ”.  If you were “crushing” on someone, it was the ideal way to get their attention.  Or, to watch the drama unfold if Sally couldn’t get Harry (her significant other of three weeks) to smile.  Fireworks.

Thankfully, youth group games have evolved a bit since that glorious age.  “He-who-is-now-taller-than-I” is a full-fledged member of a local youth group--which means that he comes home with his friends’ names, written in Sharpie, on his flip-flop clad feet.  Or with tales of a food relay--a must in all good Youth Groups--with partners acting as wheelbarrows, with stations of Starburst, Skittles, and the pièce de résistance--a towering platter of Vienna Sausages.  Would you believe an exceedingly brave young lady bested the boys on that particular game?  Truly, her value is far more precious than rubies.

 
Hey, where’s my deck of cards?  I’m totally up for a game of “Killer”.  Wink-wink.