Don’t get me wrong, I’m not going to throw my phone out the window anytime soon.  It’s just that I am recognizing something has to change. I can’t keep diving into my phone…losing sight of my real and present life.

Apparently I’m not alone.

One out of every five people in the world have smartphones–that’s equal to more than one billion people! Our phones contain personal documents, photos, banking information, social media identities and serve as our primary source of communication: they have become an appendage we can’t seem to be without.

A 2015 Pew Research Study revealed that 46% of Americans say they can’t live without their smartphones.

The other 54% are living in denial. Just kidding (kind of!) But it’s not just the fact that our phones hold valuable information and communication; those little buggers are insanely addictive! Knowing this, I encourage you (and me) to choose to set them down more often.

God convicted me about this issue, and I started praying about it and jotting down notes. Ironically the very next lesson in the Bible study I’m currently doing (Proven by Jennie Allen) addressed smartphone addiction. I love how the Lord confirms things!

Allen writes, “I am learning to call friends over for chili instead of surfing Facebook. I am learning to look my kids in the eyes instead of stare at my phone. Our family is choosing to eat outside and laugh and have game nights and I am learning that the rhythms of gracious living are sacred and pleasing to Jesus.”

Amen!

Can we be intentional together in this endeavor? Most of us can stand to look at our phones less and truly connect with each other more.

One thing that our family has actually done…that I hope will encourage you…is setting a rule that we (and kids spending the night) check our phones/devices in when we are doing something together (a game, dinner, etc.) AND before we go to bed.  Everyone plugs in their devices on our kitchen desk and we leave them there. At first we were afraid our kids’ friends would never want to come to our house anymore, but it hasn’t seemed to deter anyone!

Smart phones are pretty awesome but they can easily take over our lives. Let’s be smarter than our phones! Let’s not lose precious opportunities to live life to the full…with God and with our people. ♥️




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