Saturday Night with the Boys

I'm my ward's Deacons Quorum Advisor. For those not familiar with the lingo, this means I work with the twelve and thirteen year-old boys at church. Of late the boys haven't been very reverent during class. I think it's partly due to the time change (we just moved from 1pm to 9am church) and partly due to the fact that they are twelve and thirteen year-old boys. You've got to expect a certain amount of rowdiness.

To encourage them to be better behaved, Zachariah and I instituted a points system. You get one point for bringing your scriptures. A second point is awarded for wearing a tie. Three more points are awarded for reverence. Every time you do something irreverent you lose a point. Every other month we tally the points and each boy with a 4 average or better gets to come to a video game party.

We had our first party tonight at Zachariah's house. A new flat-panel TV and a PS2 made his house the obvious choice. One of the boys brought an Xbox and another brought a Gameboy Dual Screen. We played a bunch of different games and I even tried my hand a few times and mostly lost. The boys seemed highly pleased with the party and reverence today at Church was amazing. When one boy lost one point for taking off his tie - okay, he had taken it off and retied it three or four times, we only took off the point after the fourth time - he was devastated. We assured him that he could make up the lost point with reverence next week.

After two hours of semi-teenage boys and video games I was ready for the quiet peace of my house. I think two hours every other month is a worthy sacrifice for reverence each week. We'll see how long the system works.