Devices and TV

from Christian Living Magazine May June 2021

Maximum Health

TVs and devices? Be aware of what you’re being discipled by

By Bethany Riehl

“All things are lawful, but not all things are profitable. All things are lawful, but not all things edify.” – 1 Corinthians 10:23 me the one piece of data shared in a session that most affected her: In the time span from kindergarten through senior year of high school, kids spend –1. 11,000 hours in school 2. 20,000 hours in front of a screen

This verse, like so many others, is a comfort to me; and a 3. 800 hours in Sunday school (if they come every week durchallenge. It’s difficult to grasp the freedom found in Jesus. Yes, ing that time) I am free to do all things – make choices without fear that I The point being made by the speaker was that the kids are will be cast out of my Father’s hand. And yet, many choices I being discipled in each of those scenarios. My brain instantly make can very seriously destroy my witness and wreck my life. connected with that. In truth, we are all being discipled in the I serve a gracious God that stands back and lets me choose. He various activities we find ourselves in each day, especially if we also mercifully swoops in when I make the wrong choice. follow along blindly.

In my younger years, my wrong choices were much more When my friend shared that data with me, I immediately obvious and damaging in ways that wondered: How many hours am I everyone could see (sorry Mom and Dad). Now as an adult, wrong “We are all disciples of something, discipled by social media compared to the time I spend in the Word? I choices can be so subtle that they being discipled by something daily. read my Bible daily, but it doesn’t snake their way through my soul, hanging on like clover patch – intersected and woven into every area of What we give our time, heart, and devotion to matters.” stick as firmly as it did before I wasted so much time scrolling through my social media feeds. And if this is my life before I know it. my habit, what kind of an example

My biggest sin? Pride. And my big- am I to my children? gest struggle? Social media. So I am challenging myself in light of 1 Corinthians 10:23. I

Perhaps this sounds silly. Small and innocent compared to have freedom in Christ – freedom to put aside the things that other struggles and sins we all face. The majority of us spend pull me away from Him and are not beneficial to my soul. My too much time on our phones and computers, and those of challenge is to pause / deactivate / delete my social media us that were born before computers and smartphones were in accounts for a time and just press into Jesus. Read His words every home can very clearly grasp the amount of time being more than I read other things. Listen to psalms and hymns and wasted each time we fall into a crazy YouTube video rabbit spiritual songs more than anything else. Speak His words to my trail. But more than a time sucker, I’ve lately seen how social children. Leave the TV off. media is changing who I am and it’s definitely not for the bet- I feel a great desire to turn off the other voices and let the ter. Lord Himself disciple me above all else. Otherwise, I fear my

It’s not just me, or you. It’s our children. heart will grow hard against my fellow man and I will cease to

A friend of mine, the director of the children’s ministry at be useful in this life to what the Lord has called me to do – love her church, once returned from a conference and shared with and glorify Him and love His people. I believe this was Israel’s

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great downfall. Psalm 78:8 says that they were If you struggle as I do, if you’ve set out to “a generation that did not prepare its heart break bad habits only to fail within a week – or and whose spirit was not faithful to God.” even more grievous, tried to tear yourself away

Let’s learn from their great sin and, even from a relentless sin only to fail again and again here in our promised land of salvation, be a – let me please encourage you with a quote generation that prepares its heart and whose from Butterfield’s book, “I’ve discovered that spirit is faithful to God. Above all else, even our God doesn’t change my feelings until I obey seemingly innocent, harmless entertainment. Him.” Everything must start with prayer, then Entertainment that has become an acid eroding trust in Him to change our actions as we obey away our love, our patience, our commitment in faith. Often it takes just walking away in to live selflessly for our neighbor. obedience whether we feel like it or not.

The majority of this article was written last Bethany Riehl We are all disciples of something, being year. And for a year, I struggled to do as I discipled by something daily. What we give our longed to. For a long time, my prayer has been for God to help time, heart, and devotion to matters. Christian, may it be that pull me out of my own sin and bad habits, and I knew the root we truly “love the LORD your God with all your heart and [of that] was where I turn my attention. with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your

The Lord is rarely “fast” in His answers to His children, but I strength,” for it is only once we’ve done that that we can, have discovered that when He moves, in His timing, He moves “love your neighbor as yourself.” (Mark 12:30-31) n quickly. A few weeks ago, I discovered the book, Discipline the Glad Surrender, by Elisabeth Elliot. That book led to seri- Bethany Riehl loves to write stories and articles that explore ous self-evaluation – the raw, honest, uncomfortable kind. Ms. the complexities of relationships and encourage readers in Elliot often points readers to her hero, Amy Carmichael, the their relationship with Jesus. She joyfully serves in the chilgreat Irish missionary that became the mother to hundreds of dren’s ministry at her church, teaches at a homeschool co-op, children in India. and drinks more coffee than necessary to keep up with her

As I was touched deeply by Ms. Elliott’s books and teachings, only-slightly-crazy life. She is the author of four Christian I immediately requested a pile of Ms. Carmichael’s books. As fiction novels and now lives in Meridian with her spunky they were being delivered, the library notified me that a book kids and very handsome hubby. I’ve been in line for was available: The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert, by Rosaria Champagne Butterfield. That book shed a blindingly bright light on the deepest corners of my heart where pride festers unnoticed, but certainly not unproductively. Nearly a month of putting down my phone and leaving the TV off for the most part to read these books rich in truth have already begun to show me how misshapen my own heart and mind have become. By the grace of God, He is discipling me in a different way and as I grow closer to Him, the less interested I am in the vices that have made me numb to His love.