Do you ever feel like that's
the way we live? No wonder so many of us struggle to hear God's
voice. We have to be still and quiet to hear His whispers of love
to our souls. “I love you. You are mine. I created
you. I know everything about you and still you are the very
essence of Christ to me.”
AHHH…..
Now I can write.
This
week we decided to turn off the TV. I've felt for a long time
that our lives would be better without it. I think I could drop
all of them off our bedroom balcony (well, it's a deck but balcony
sounded better) and never miss them. I'm not sure my husband
would agree, especially during football season. You see, he's
just sure there will be football in heaven and he'll get to be
quarterback. He LOVES college football.
But we've
had a few discipline problems that really encouraged us to do a little
“outside the box” thinking. So, we turned off the TV. None
before school. None after school. None, period.
And
you know what? I think we've stumbled onto something. I'm
convinced the TV sucks what good sense God gave my children right out
of their brains. It leaves them disobedient, agressive and
robotic. Monkey see, monkey do.
Now you may think we've
not monitored what our children watch very closely, but we have.
And still…..monkey syndrome. So this week we decided good
behavior earns TV but not until the end of the week, Saturday.
It's been amazing at how much more involved we've become in their lives
and how much better theire behavior has been. There has been less
fighting, more playing, less aggression, less hitting, more reading and
more good old fashion family time.
When we lived in KY we lived next door to the Carters (tn3jcarter).
They always had the TV on. Since moving to the country they've
put away the TV and adopted more pleasurable things (read her blog at tn3jcarter).
Since we still keep in touch I've gotten to hear about the changes in
their family but just haven't been brave enough to try it yet.
I think I've been afraid I'll miss something. WHAT??
But,
I knew it would happen. God's been convicting me for a
while. We've had such a great week as a family that I am ready to
throw all the TVs off the balcony….my hubbie says I just have to wait
until after the IRON BOWL tomorrow (that's the Auburn vs Alabama
college football game).
I really think we're onto something here!!!
Adios televisionitis!!
Julie
LOVE IT! We also limit opportunities for our children to enter “the TV trance”! LOL! (((((HUGS)))) sandi
EXCEPT…for those times *I* want to watch it! LOL! There are a few things…very, very few…that I enjoy watching, but I could certainly live without it. My husband, bless his dear heart, would have a more difficult time giving up sports. I, too, had 3 boys and then 1 girls. When I was pregnant with her I was convinced that she was probably a boy, but I didn’t want to know what sonograms revealed. I told the doctor we wanted to be surprised when the baby was born…however, I developed some complications late in the pregnancy and the when they did a sonogram to see how my placenta was progressing, the nurse said, “She is a big baby!” I had mixed emotions because they scheduled me for a c-section right away – I decided it was a trade-off. I was depressed at having to have a c-section, but thrilled I was having a girl. Well…that was certainly far more than you probably cared to hear! =) Have a very blessed week, Julie! Love ~ Patricia
when we ditched our tv, at first i was a little nervous. now i cannot imagine having one. our quality of life has improved 40 fold since we dumped it.
🙂 jen
I am very much aware of how much quality time the t.v. can steal from us. I think the least amount of t.v. you can deal with, the better! Best Wishes! Love your blog, too!
Michelle
Isn’t it amazing how hard it is to take that step of getting rid of the TV, but then once you do it, you realize what you were missing by having it? You know where I think that comes from of course. : ) Tony isn’t too upset my missing this TN football season. I think it’s like watching a train wreck. UGH!