Family Media Detox

You know, he has another special day coming up: September 6th. That's the anniversary of his arrival in our home. Sam and Mercy (PeeWee) both came to us as foster children; social workers brought Mercy to us on October 4th, 2005, when she was six weeks old, and Sam arrived almost a year later, just three days after his birth.

Both had been born drug-exposed; they were so frail and sickly. Missy and I watched and prayed over them, waiting and working for indications that they would grow stronger and thrive. God has worked mightily to bring them past a variety of developmental delays and, as the video shows, our sweet Lord has strengthened and blessed them so phenomenally that one would never guess they had ever been afflicted in any way.

In today's video, Missy and I discuss an unavoidable encounter with a couple of televisions during Sam's birthday lunch. Good heavens, those screens wield remarkable power to draw a person's attention. We got through it, though.

Thanks to all of you who have visited the blog and shared the link on your Facebook pages. Our stats indicate that visits on Day Two nearly doubled from the Day One total.

Our prayer is that our little experiment here would encourage other families to undertake a similar challenge. After just three days, I can honestly say that I'm seeing a positive change in myself and in our family. We're enjoying each other more, the children are bickering less, and Missy and I have been more engaged as parents. I've also been more productive as a pastor and writer, and I pray that continues. If you're considering it, I hope you'll give it a try and share your experiences with us!

Besides freerepublic.com, which websites, blogs, and forums are you addicted to? I'm completely hooked on this one. It's a daily, ongoing video chronicle of this conservative pastor's family taking a month-long hiatus from all television, movies, video games, mp3 players, and social networking, and yes, I see the irony in being addicted to a website about breaking media addiction! I can't help it! They're funny, and the kids are so cute!

Just booting TV and cable from the home enriches life considerably. One finds other more constructive, productive, and creative ways to spend one's time. Haven't had cable TV for virtually all of my adult life (exeption was about three years when I was married in my mid 20s and my then-husband insisted on having a TV and cable), and when I was single, didn't have a TV at all.

Have been married for 21 years now to, thank God, a man who needs TV about as much as I do. We've never had cable, only ever watching broadcast TV a few minutes in the morning for news and -- I admit -- the TV show "24" for a couple of seasons. Other than that, our TV has served only as a vehicle for the VCR or DVD to play movies while having dinner. Since analog switched to digital, that's ALL it is, as we've never converted the TV antenna.

I strongly urge people to dump your cable and even your TV. Your lives, and those of your children, will be richer for it. I am eternally grateful to my parents for laying down a household rule that limited television to two hours per evening and early Saturday morning cartoons. If we got caught watching TV during the day, we were in BIG trouble. So we all grew up knowing how to do things with our hands, how to use our imaginations, how to be creative and innovative, how to get engaged in a good novel, how to get along and play card and board games as a family -- we had a huge advantage over our peers who would spend literally five to six hours per day parked and idling in front of the boob.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.