Ever Considered Pulling The Plug?

Proverbs 4:23
Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life.

This is a scripture that we will go over again and again during our Epic Dating Series, but today as I read a parenting devotion this scripture didn't apply to dating. It applied to my family and the hearts of my two sons, the heart of my wife and my own.

"Imagine inviting a stranger into your home for two or three hours every day to tell your children all about a perverse world where violence solves problems and all anyone needs to be happy is the right beer, a fast car, good looks, and lots of sex." According to Dr. Victor Strasburger, chief of the division of adolescent medicine at the University of New Mexico's School of Medicine, that is exactly what happens when parents use television as the baby-sitter and do not monitor what their children watch.

--NLT Parenting Devotion

Now honestly I know we wouldn’t invite a stranger in to our homes and let this happen. But as head of my household I physically picked up the TV, bought it with my money and placed it in my home. Don't get me wrong, television is entertaining, but is it taking over the hearts of our children? Is it taking the place of quality family time? Is it teaching our children things of this world when we should be the ones teaching and guiding them?

Dr. Strasburger said: "Ninety percent of the programming is detrimental to your child's health, and it is a scary business. . . . America has the worst television for children and adolescents in the world . . . We have to instruct parents better about what the effects of television are and how they can mediate against those harmful effects."

In addition to the poor content of most television shows, the amount of time that children spend in front of TV is also a great problem--23 to 27 hours a week by the average child. That is 23 to 27 hours that they are not outside playing, not reading books, not riding bicycles, not exercising, and so forth.

According to Strasburger, for many years the television networks and parents have been blaming each other. But both are at fault, and both can make changes. Obviously, the television networks can produce better shows.

But parents should also get involved. Instead of using the television as a convenient baby-sitter, they should get involved with their kids, playing with them and directing them into creative uses of their free time. Parents should monitor the shows their kids watch. And they should have the courage to change channels or turn the TV off when something inappropriate, offensive, or wrong comes on. They could even put the entire family on a TV diet, limiting viewing to a few hours a week.

--NLT Parenting Devotion

Believe it or not, once you limit or just turn off the TV you'll eventually remember how to communicate with each other. Yeah you'll have withdrawals (especially if you have your weekly shows) but you'll make it and eventually not desire it. You'll also realize that the home will get a lot less chaotic now that the background noise is gone. But most of all you'll have a chance to fold up the TV trays and sit down with your family at the dining room table. You'll have a chance to spend some time playing with your children, or having a conversation with your wife, or even some time with God. That time spent with them is precious time that will impact their lives in a tremendous way. I've decided to blog on this devotion because this is something we did a few weeks ago. Yeah it was weird when I came home from work and the TV was off and the doors were shut to the TV cabinet. I actually asked my wife what was going on. Now understand I’m not trying to get the whole world anti-television but the facts are true. These things are influencing our children and family, and it’s our jobs as fathers/parents to guard our children's hearts. If we don’t do it the world will do it for you. I challenge you to take a break from the tube and evaluate your household. Take a day or a weekend and spend some quality time with your family. It’s time to pull the plug and plug into them.

Thought this was interesting...

Publication Date: April 12, 1984

(When Mama Bear decides her family spends too much time in front of the TV, she bans it for a week. Then the Bear family finds other ways to have fun and keep busy, so they watch less when TV is allowed again--and they don't even miss it.)