A month or so before I read 7: An Experimental Mutiny Against Excess, God had been stirring something up in me. I knew I needed more, but I wasn’t sure how to get it or even what I wanted.
Then came 7.
The whole book spoke to me, but the part that really got my attention was the chapter on media.
We had always been a TV loving family, whether watching our favorite TV shows nightly, or going to the theater every weekend to see the latest movie (that was before we had kids.)
After reading the media chapter, my eyes were opened. I started asking myself these questions:
- How much time were we wasting on TV and movies?
- Was what we were watching good and beneficial?
- Who or what was first in our lives? The TV or Jesus?
These were really hard questions for me to answer, but for the first time in my life I sat down and thought about the answers. It wasn’t good. Well, it was good, but it was tough. I talked to my husband and we came to the same conclusion:
We were spending too much time in front of a screen. We were numbing our minds to what was going on around us, and we were finding that the more stuff we watched the harder it was to tell what was even “acceptable” anymore.
So we gave ourselves a timeout.
We had previously gotten rid of cable when summer started, so we got rid of the disc part of Netflix. (We still have the instant queue because of the kids, but I think this will be going soon also.) We got rid of some of our movies and TV shows. Same with books and video games. Really we just have too much stuff.
After we did this came the question of how to spend our nights. We were used to watching something when the kids went to bed. This had been our “quality” time. Honestly, we felt a little lost.
But God had a plan.
We soon found out that a group of our friends were meeting nightly for some intense prayer and worship. I was instantly excited. This is what I wanted. What I needed. More of Him.
So, Aaron and I would take turns (because someone had to stay home with the kids) going to the prayer nights. When I was home, I would fill my nights with reading, listening to music, blogging, or something else productive. And when Aaron was home he got busy editing a book that him and his dad wrote together. Talk about life changing.
Jesus moved in our lives like never before. We gave Him our time and ourselves, and He showed us who we really were in Him, and what it was like to give Him our all. We gave Him our time, He gave us His passion.
It was seriously insane. Insane good.
I’m not writing this to say TV or movies are horrible. They’re not. In fact, we still watch a show here and there and there’s a few movies coming out this fall that I am excited to see. We just realized we were spending way too much time in front of a screen and not enough time in the presence of Jesus.
We felt the prompting of the Holy Spirit to give some of this up, and we obeyed. And He blessed us for it. I have finally realized that Jesus is better than anything I could watch, read, or listen to.
He’s everything.
By: Jill Reini, Reini Days
Photo by Alex Courso
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Tune in this Friday for a link up on Media! If this week’s chapter affected you in any way, we want to know about it! So share about it on your own blog and come back and link up this Friday {or share in the comments}!
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After reading Soul Detox, I came to a similar realization. I realized I just didn’t have time for all of the tv I was watching! I’d complain that I wanted more time to sit and read and pray, but then spend a few hours camped in front of the tv at night. I’ve banned myself from watching it Sunday-Thursday nights for a month now, and I don’t miss it! I DVR my absolute faves and I know they’ll be there this weekend if and when I want to watch them.
Thanks for this post!
I know! It’s amazing how much time can be spent on TV and you don’t even realize it! I like the idea of watching TV on only a few days a week. We still don’t watch much at all, but when we do I like the idea of one or two nights a week only.
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We didn’t have cable for quite a while, and then last winter needed to change internet providers because my husband worked from home. The cost of adding the cable package in was about $5 after we bundled everything, so we went with it. I can say that I don’t even watch the cable. If I watch TV it is typically online – which is strange since we have a DVR too, but I think maybe I was just used to watching TV online. When our promotional pricing runs out in December I fully expect to cut the cable. We might keep basic for the news, but even that is so depressing these days, it might be better to just forget it all together 🙂
I love that if there’s something I do want to watch I can typically find it online. Or is that scary?
When we had cable, I would leave the TV on even if I wasn’t watching it. It seemed like a security thing. The noise made me feel better. Once I realized what I was doing, I was like, “Wow. Okay. This needs to stop.”
All things in moderation, God does want us to enjoy our lives and down time, yet to choose activities that build our spiritual lives and refresh our souls. We too have gone through many catharsis of change with getting rid of old tapes, DVD’s, CD’s, etc. It is refreshing to the soul and spirit to do some housecleaning and do a check up from the neck up occasionally.
Moderation is key in all of this. God wants us to enjoy the things He has made. It can just get out of hand easily (at least for us).
This is a great idea, it’s also a great opp for your family to become more connected through games, activities, projects, reading aloud together, etc. with all that newfound time. We also loved watching movies together when our kids were young and I realize now it’s because it was a comfortable way of being together and bonding. I just wish we would have focused on some other ways of doing that more often. You can’t ever get the time back when they’re all grown up.
“You can’t ever get the time back when they’re all grown up.”– this is great. I hear it all the time, but have a hard time remembering it. Thanks for the reminder!
When you give up TV, even if it’s for a short time, you realize how much free time you have and filling it is fun! You have to get creative after awhile, especially with younger kids. Mine are just happy when they have our attention.
I love that you address the quality of the media we consume. I came to a realization earliee this year that I needed to monitor what I take in. Is it virtuous, lovely, praiseworthy, or of good report? Does it bring me closer to the Spirit of God or drive Him away? It makes such a difference when I pay attention to these factors.
“Is it virtuous, lovely, praiseworthy, or of good report?”– this is huge. I think about this in all areas of my life. It’s really a good check to see what’s going on in your life and around you.
“Jesus is better than anything I could watch, read, or listen to.” Amen sista! Such freedom in actually choosing “good” things to enter our minds in. I’d much rather pick up a book now than turn on TV. Liberating! Thanks for the post! Oh, and 7 was pretty much awesome as well. I couldn’t even wait the 30 minutes while IOS6 was downloading on my iphone, spoiled and entitled. I thought, hey Heather why not be productive and have some chat time with Jesus! Blessings!
I LOVE to read. It’s pretty much my favorite thing to do. And with giving up most TV, my free time is through the roof, which means more books for me!
Blessings to you, too!
Jill this was such a beautiful and honest post. I love it. We gave up our tv quite recently and I was amazed at all the extra time I had. I couldn’t believe it! Now I can be more choosey with what I watch. And I have found that a lot of it was really not that important to me. And if there is something we really wanna see? Then we go visit friends or family and make some fellowship out of it. It’s gotten us out of the house and out of our rut. Really I wish we would have done it sooner!
Thanks, Stephanie. I really enjoyed writing this. It’s really at the heart of everything lately that’s been going on in our lives. It feels like God is doing some really major stuff in us and the people around us. He’s waking us up!
We go over to my in-laws for football on Sundays, and love it! Great fellowship time!
“We gave Him our time, He gave us His passion.” Awesome!
We went for years without TV or a computer, but the truth is we did not use our time to seek out God’s direction…the kids were all young and we were generally too tired to do much TV watching anyway :0). About 5 years ago we signed up for cable and we use the internet for online schooling. Now that the kids are older (2 off at college 2 doing high school at home), I find we had been spending a lot of time on the internet or they on games. It is hard to get them to seek out other “things” to do. I mean they are home and so we spend a LOT of hours together :0). They volunteer in our town are involved with Boy Scouts and our church youth group so when I suggest something *else* their 14 and 15 year old boy minds are like “Huh??? We do *do* other stuff, now we want to chill!” Life is full of checks and balances!
I understand about being tired. When the twins were really young, we were so exhausted we were just trying to get by. But now that they’re older, we’re finally to the point where we can actually live. It’s wonderful. But when the kids are young, it definitely isn’t easy.
What an amazing blessing that you and your husband could make the time to go to the nightly prayer meeting. It’s such a great example of seeking God and finding Him! I notice that when I turn off the TV, it almost seems like my blood pressure goes down…something about the constant talking/bombardment makes me anxious. I enjoy the peace and quiet when it’s off. I’ve been making a concerted effort to not turn the TV on when my daughter is awake, and it’s definitely helped us spend more quality time together.
I know. It’s been a huge blessing that we can go to these meetings or even host a few. We’ve found a great group of friends and are so blessed.
Yeah, I’ve found that it almost stretches you when you turn the TV off with what to do with your kids. Then you have to actually play with them. Gasp! 😉 You know what I mean though. It’s too easy to just put on a show to just get some time alone, or a break. I still do that. It’s nice from time-to-time.
My husband & I don’t watch much tv either. We have a few shows, usually on History Channel that we DVR and watch for about 30 minutes or so nightly.
I feel like most of the stuff on TV now is basically trash & the news is so depressing & boring-constantly talking of the election–that I could care less. After working all day in a busy health clinic I would rather just have some quiet music and snuggle with hubby than a lot of noise & blah blah.
I wish more and more people would turn off turne out & tune in to God. They will probably find out their blood pressure goes down, they are calmer & a lot of their health issues will disappear.
I’ve noticed that with TV too– the majority of it is crap. Seriously. And it’s definitely not helping our relationship with God. On the other hand, it’s nice for some down time once in awhile. It’s all in moderation…
We joke in our house that the only times we watch tv are during the Olympics or if there’s a tornado warning. 🙂
Actually, now that our son is a little older (just turned 2) he watches a couple of little kid cartoons in the morning while I get ready. But yeah…. super limited TV around our place. And yet it’s amazing how rarely my hubby and I get a chance in the evening (or MAKE the time) to just sit down, face-to-face. But OH, how God MEETS us in the times when we do. I think we need to set a goal to do that more… because even though we don’t watch tv, we are still often distracted by other stuff…
Anyway, just musing here. 🙂 Your post was thought-provoking…. so these are my provoked thoughts. 🙂 haha. Thank you!!
I love the Olympics. We use something like that just to get together with people, hang out, eat, and watch a little TV.
“But OH, how God MEETS us in the times when we do. I think we need to set a goal to do that more… because even though we don’t watch tv, we are still often distracted by other stuff…” — this is a good reminder to myself to make that time with Him. He doesn’t disappoint if you take the time, it’s just easy, like you said, to get distracted by the other things going on in our lives.
🙂
Jill, thank you for writing such a lovely, profound post! Cutting out or cutting back on media is one of those things we all think about and don’t do, but your post reminds me that just PULLING THE TRIGGER produces such remarkable results in our marriages and families. It’s really not hard. But every single time we choose to shut down the screens all day or all evening and just hang out and read and talk and play instead, we never ever regret it. Ever. Thank you for throwing your wisdom into the 7 pot here. Super grateful. Love to you!
Ahhh… thanks for commenting! And thanks for writing such an awesome book. I think God is using you to wake people up. After reading 7, I know I did!