Living in the 21st Century

Most of us have at least 5-10 screens in our house, if not more.  This includes cellphones, iPads, iPods, TVs , laptops and more.  We can now get on the internet driving down the road. Recently, I was at a couples event and I saw some men huddled together watching a clip of the game that was going on.  We can message each other in seconds.  We can take a picture and put it on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram in less then a minute.

We use machines to wash our clothes, ovens to cook our food and we can get already-made meals at a drop of hat.  We can even pull up to a window and order our food.  Things are super easy to obtain and most of our modern day conveniences make the chores of our life faster.... OR DO THEY?  Where is all our extra time being spent?  On the screens?

If you actually took the time to track where all your time is spent, you would be surprised at the amount of wasted time in a day.  Cell phones are a leash around your neck; especially with text messaging,you are at everyone’s beck and call.  TV and shows are relaxing but absorb A LOT of your time, especially with all the commercials in between.  In this day and age of social media, we feel we must message and stay in contact with 100s of people.  This is a lot of work.  Pinterest is a GREAT resource to help encourage woman in their decorating, cooking, parenting and much more, but it can lead to woman being discouraged and feel like they need to do more then they were meant to do.  Social media can encourage us to covet what our friends are doing and having, as well.

Screens are helpful and not bad, in and of themselves, but they can lead us down paths that we should never have traveled. T he amount of divorces that were caused by Facebook are astronomical.  Most of us think nothing of having guy friends on FB but many times, that can lead to things that are not proper. Be careful, my friend!  I am not saying to hide in a box and get rid of all your screens; in fact I am typing on one right now.   What I am saying is "evaluate".  Ask yourself some questions…

How much time do I actually spend every day on these things. (Take 1 week and keep track of how much time you spend on each screen every day)

	TV and Shows	Social Media	Cell Phone (outside of work)	Video Games
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
Sunday

What can I do to change this life style (Ideas below:)

1. Have a Family Movie Night instead of watching TV all the time

2. Give yourself only 1 hour of social media a day .(Set a timer.)

3. Turn off your cell phone every night during dinner and family times (if you have some type of emergency in your life I would suggest that you keep at least one phone on, but don’t answer it unless the call is about that emergency)

4. Take the Internet out of your house or get a Hotspot.  My husband and I have Hotspot so I am able to be on the internet only when he is home.  It helps me to not waste time during the day. I also work at our church so if I need to get on the Internet I can use it there as well.

5. Take cable out of the house (Only watch movies)… This cuts down on wasted time.

6. Talk to your husband and kids and come up with ideas to spend less time in front of your screens and more time together in the fresh air.

You can enjoy 21^st century inventions and life style, but you don’t have it let it take over your life. – Rejoicing in the Present.