Words with Friends

"Really, Victoria? Roquet?" I asked my youngest after seeing her latest move on the Words with Friends game we were playing. "What does roquet mean?"
"I don't know. I just move the letters around until a word is accepted." Victoria, by the way, is winning. Maybe I'm just a little rusty since I haven't played this Scrabble-type, cell phone game, in almost a year.
I've also got a contest going with my niece, Mattie, who is expecting her first child in January. We're going to get in as many games as we can before welcoming a brand new life into the world, and Mattie intends to beat me each and every time. It appears her strategy is to use short, well placed words, such as ut, qi, and uh. Mattie, by the way, is winning.
Another match has me facing my friend, Jackie, an English major. Guess how that's going! She's using words like tope, mon, and zoa. Jackie, by the way, is… well, you know…
Over the course of the game, we're all given the same letters, and the way we choose to play them determines the winner. It always helps when a letter with a high value falls on a 'triple letter' or 'triple word' place. I'm not going to try to fool myself by thinking I'm behind due to the timing of the letters, or the positions open on the board. I have to face the fact that I'm not making the best use of the letters and spaces available to me.
I sure hope I do a lot better with the 24 hours I'm given today. This morning I read Psalm 39: 4, “LORD, remind me how brief my time on earth will be." God does me a favor when He reminds me of the brevity of this life. It's a motivation to use my time wisely, take the opportunities He's provided, and make the best use of available space.
William Borden used up his space wisely. As an heir to the Borden Dairy estate, he was a millionaire before he was a high school graduate. Upon graduation, in 1904, his parents sent the 16 year old on a trip around the world. He returned with the desire to become a missionary and began his mission in the next place he landed: Yale University.
During his first semester, Borden began to pray with a fellow student. Other students soon joined the prayer group, and by his senior, year, 1000 of Yales' 1300 students were involved in similar prayer groups. In addition to his impact on campus, Borden founded a rehabilitation home for the drunks he rescued from the streets, and also reached out to the widows, orphans, and disabled.
He eventually set sail for China, contacted spinal meningitis before reaching his destination, and died at the age of 25. In the back of His Bible, he had written the words, "No Reserves. No Retreats. No Regrets."
Those words, my friends, are a winning strategy.
Ronny may be reached at rmichel@rtconline.com.