I want to start by saying that my wife, Kathy, gave me permission to make this post. Because it’s about her I requested permission. Early on in our marriage relationship we both decided that I would request permission on any decision that has to do with Kathy. “How’s that working?” you might ask. So far in our marriage, all decisions have to do with Kathy.

Kathy is a Facebook user and, in a noble effort to grow closer to her nephews and nieces, she has started to play the various Facebook games such as Farmville and the Facebook Aquarium game. So one day a few weeks ago, she goes to her Facebook Aquarium and finds a fish floating, belly up. She hovers the cursor over the dead fish and much to her alarm it says, “floater!” Kathy is an animal lover — broken hearted she vows never to let another fish die again.

This morning as I sat at the dining room table that overlooks our gold fish pond, I heard aquarium-like noises coming from her computer and asked what she was up to. The conversation went like this:

“I’m feeding my fish.” (her Facebook Aquarium game fish)

“Sweetheart,” I began, in my best, I’m-sounding-like-a-nice-guy-because-I’m-about-to-ask-a-loaded-question voice, “when was the last time you fed our real fish?”

“Shut up.” she immediately replied — laughing.

After some further discussion it was determined that it has been, well, awhile since Kathy has fed our real fish.

Now I have to qualify what I’m writing by adding three things:

1) I substituted the photo of these ridiculously hungry fish in this post for the photo of our real gold fish.

2) I had to do # 1 for effect. You see our gold fish are doing fine. In fact they continue to grow even though we don’t feed them very often. I’m told that they’re eating algae and little bugs that fall into the pond.

3) My arms are not broken. There’s nothing preventing me from feeding our fish — the real ones.

Even so, don’t you find it disturbing on some level that we’re feeding the Facebook fish before the real fish?

I can only hope and pray that Facebook doesn’t come out with a Facebook husband game…

Your Life:

Feed your family the word of God every day. Find a good devotional book. Read your kids a few pages of the Narnia Chronicles then close with a scripture. Go to 10 Tips for Fun Family Devotions for more information.

“Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your forefathers ate manna and died, but he who feeds on this bread will live forever.”

John 6:57, 58