Limits

When our kids were growing up personal computers were a new thing.  My husband is an electronic junky so of course we had the latest and greatest computer we could afford.  We also had TV, radio, a land line telephone and dial up internet.  We were very electronic savvy for our income.

Our kids had to earn their computer time.  They would share it in a way, the first one would start the game with his time and the second one would try to finish it with his time.  They would start the day with so much computer time and they could lose time if they did not behave.  We also limited their daytime TV watching and what programs they could watch.  In general our sons played a lot and had good imaginations.

A few years ago I was talking to our youngest and he made the comment that his imagination went when we took away the limited computer time.  This statement shocked me.  As our sons got older we felt they were old enough to monitor themselves and we no longer set limits on their computer time (they were early teens).

I can't believe how fast modern technology comes up with more and more new things.  Who would have thought 3 years ago that people would be reading books from a Kindle, watching TV from their cell phone, continually checking their facebook status from their phone.  My husband just bought a Kinects for his X-Box 360 in which he does not need a connector to play games.  It all just boggles my mind.  I am not anti technology, I think there are really great and wonderful things from the new technology.  One son lives in England and the other in Iowa and they play X-Box 360 and talk with each other all of the time.  I absolutely love that.

My concern with all of the technology is the lack of face to face interaction and imagination.  Humans were built and designed to interact with each other, face to face.  It is so much easier to be mean or lie by typing in a computer or android phone than it is to do it face to face.  The same goes with our relationship with God, He does not want us to text him or email him, he wants us to talk to him when it is quiet.  If we do not practice putting the electronics down for a while, and to stop the noise how will we get to know and teach our children and point them to God???  Does your child know what it is like to have a quiet home for a while??  No phone, no TV, no radio, no computer???  Learn to be quiet before the Lord??

Psalm 46:10 "Be still and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth."