I Just Want to be Invited

A few years ago we had a group of college students over to our house for dinner and a game night. We decided to play what we call "The Game."

First, we created our own clues for each round. Then "The Game" is played in three rounds. The first round is like Taboo, where you can describe the clue but can't say it. The second round is like Charades, the players act out the same clues again. The third round uses the same clues but the prompter can only use one word.

Some clues are fairly easy for the teams to guess, like "baby" or "shame on you." Others, not so much.  Nothing' says fun like trying to act out "sanctification" or "La Brea Tar Pits."

That night with the college students we found ourselves describing, acting out and guessing a phrase that sticks with us even today in our conversations. It was:

"I just want to be invited."

Over time the phrase has morphed. When we played "The Game" that night it was in reference to a situation where a person invited themselves to dinner when an invitation hadn't appeared quickly enough. Since then it has adopted another meaning, that you don't necessarily have to do the activity but you want to be thought of enough to be invited to attend.

I don't know why this is on my mind tonight - or even why I'm awake at 1 a.m. when I have an 8 a.m. meeting in the morning and a fully scheduled day! - but I feel motivated to simply encourage you to "invite" someone to do something.  Get out of your comfort zone and make something happen.  

I spend far to much time waiting on other people to invite me to do things and then feeling lonely or neglected when an invitation is not forthcoming.

My heart has been breaking lately because Mia and Maggie are now old enough to realize that sometimes peers don't like them.  Mia keeps asking me why so-and-so at school doesn't want to be her friend anymore.  Maggie was so sad today because no one wanted to play with her at one point.

The simple answer to their questions as best I can tell from their teachers is that they're bossy girls and sometimes the other kids don't want to be told what to do.  (Hm... wonder where they picked that up from? Certainly their father!)

Their hurts are simple at this point and easily forgotten now, but it makes my emotional radar start buzzing because there have been many times in my life where I didn't quite measure up to snuff and friends didn't want to be around me.

I get over it. I've learned to base my self-impression on what God thinks of me, what my husband and my family think of me, and by simply asking myself if I did the best I could do today given the circumstances that were presented.  

It's still a struggle but I also tell myself, "Sufficient unto the day is the evil therein."  It helps me relax and stop worrying about the long-term effect of my daily choices.

I want to be a part of the solution rather than the problem, though.  So join me, won't you?  Invite someone to do something today.  Then tell me how it went!