As we enter a new year and start thinking about our resolutions, goals, and hopes for 2023, we can’t help but discuss the popular idea of manifestation. New agers all over TikTok want us to believe that we can manifest anything by simply believing hard enough. But even Christians fall into similar beliefs. We hear things like “name and claim it” and wonder if that’s really as Biblical as we think. Dive into scripture with us as we discuss manifestation, prosperity gospel, and our spiritual authority as believers.
>> Show Notes:
As we enter a new year and start thinking about our resolutions, goals, and hopes for 2023, we can’t help but discuss the popular idea of manifestation. New agers all over TikTok want us to believe that we can manifest anything by simply believing hard enough. But even Christians fall into similar beliefs. We hear things like “name and claim it” and wonder if that’s really as Biblical as we think. Dive into scripture with us as we discuss manifestation, prosperity gospel, and our spiritual authority as believers.
>> Show Notes:
You're probably gonna hate us, but we are conservative Christian moms, We're here to empower other conservative Christian moms to speak up, say what's true, and defend their children's futures. Hey, I'm Amy and I'm the often too serious mother of twins. I'm Candy Rose and I'm the often two honest mother of three. and I'm Nikki, and I'm the often two emotional mother of two. Let's talk technology. Technology has transformed our lives in a matter of decades, but the church is barely talking about what it's doing to our humanity. Not to mention the day to day struggles of being mom and keeping our children safe from the wide, world of destructive ideas that can be accessed through any device. How can we be set apart as holy while still maintaining a connection to modern, necessary tools? And what does that look like for our kids and our family? Pull up a chair and let's discuss Ooh. Okay. I have a question. Have either of you seen that show? No. It was, I don't know, show a movie on Netflix called The Social Dilemma. Yes. It came out, I don't know, a little while ago, a year or two. Do Mm-hmm. But it was Definitely during Covid. Yes. I think it did come out during Covid. So it's a bunch of interviews from really famous people who have worked for Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Google, all the major. social media, I guess you would say that we use and. It, it's really like, kind of terrifying It's pretty much, I'm trying, I'm trying to think of the best way to say this. They pretty much were like, you know how in all those sci-fi movies, the robots come and they're taking over the world. They're killing humanity. They were pretty much like, yeah, that is already happening right now. It's just, they've not come to kill us. The computers are just completely running. us mentally into the ground because they are the one doing all the algorithm and figuring out all these psychotic things to keep us glued to technology, which is killing us. The terrifying part of it is that there's nothing to stop them from the algorithm. So there's literally billions upon billions of gigabytes of our, um, information, our scrolling. They literally know, or the AI knows. How long you're gonna stay on a photo and what next photo they should put so that you will keep scrolling. And so the currency these companies are, , using is us. We are the currency. We are up for grabs our attention. It's truly terrifying. Amy, you would probably, it would probably be worth a watch It was. it was shocking I mean, most of it, I feel like a lot of it you kind of know, but just hearing it and seeing it in such a way was like, oh my gosh. Uh, I mean, these big tech people were saying they need to be stopped. Like they themselves were saying that, Congress or whatever, there needs to be legislation, maybe taxation on the amount of data you're allowed to collect because you're. With, um, with startling accuracy, they can determine how long you will be on what, who you like, what you like, what you're doing, what you're watching, what you're saying. I mean, it, it's I definitely turned off my phone for five minutes after that Five whole minutes. What I thought was super creepy was on the show, they said, you know, there's only two instances then when people are called users, drug addicts and people on social media. Like, isn't that what you call them? I don't know. I was like, oh, Yeah. Well, that's maybe a stretch because in web design and in in, in product design, they're called users. Um, so like, you know, if you're developing, it's so, like, it, maybe it's related to technology. So if you use an accounting software and you're developing the accounting software, the person on the other end is called a user. Yeah. So okay. I you. It's maybe not just related to addiction, although I mean Fair point. Okay. This is interesting because I'm obsessed with an author. His name's Andy Crouch. Um, he's written a bunch of books, but one of them he's written is called The Life We're Looking For. It's all about how to manage this world of technology. And in this book, he sort of makes the case that we are not that far into. The technology revolution and that there is decades, if not centuries ahead of us that are going to term determine what this means for humanity, , and how, if you look back at any other revolution, like the Industrial Revolution or um, whatever, that there have been a lot of really bad things that happen and a lot of really good things And so we're sort of at the very beginning of this technology revolution and he is looking at a much broader global concept of this and saying, if we don't change some stuff, we're headed down the darkest path, . He points to Matthew 6 24. No man can serve two masters for either he will hate one and love the other, or else he will hold to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon and in this context, he actually believes technology is mammon. He believes it is an absolutely a demonic force and is being used in a demonic ways. So this book, he details his journey of like discovering just how bad tech is his journey to detach himself from it, because he was like, I was fully addicted. He said the, the minute I realized it was demonic is when I was trying to create new habits. Like in the morning for instance, I realized the first thing I always did was look at my phone. Hmm. And so he decided he was gonna do a couple things every morning. He was always gonna go outside before interacting with technology. And then he was always gonna sit and wait for his tea. He said, For the first couple weeks, it was like coming off an addiction. He said he would put his phone down and he would, it was almost like his phone was whispering to him to pick it back up. And he's like, that just, he realized, oh my gosh, this is demonic. Like this is not of God. And so now every morning he, whether it's for five minutes or an hour or whatever it is, he said, even if I'm in a hotel, I will throw my jacket on. I will walk downstairs and I will walk out the door and I'll look. And then I'll go back inside and just the act of being human, just reclaiming his humanity was totally transformative for his life. And then he, he's gone on to do a bunch of stuff with his, within his family. His kids aren't on social media. They're grown now. They're not on social media of their own. Their own choices. Yeah, their own volition. They talk about how they refuse to use any technology that has algorithms, but he believes the algorithms that you guys are talking about are one of the sources that has to go away if humans want any kind of positive hope in the next century from tech, So you were talking about about it whispering, like Yes, it's probably, there's probably a spiritual element to that, but there's actually studies done on it. There was a study in 2012 published by the Journal, computers and Human Behavior, 89% of 290 undergraduate studied, reported feeling phantom vibrations. So the physical sensation that their phone was vibrating. If it wasn't, so he's not alone in thinking that the phone was beckoning him our brains, the technology has rewired our brain you know, cuz our, our brains are neuroplastic, you know, and the six and the onslaught of information has literally reshaped the way we think, the way we interact with the world. And that, I This sounds like a addict behavior. You know, like hearing a phone whisper or hearing it vibrate. It sounds like addict behavior. Oh, it's so creepy. Be. It's so creepy. I kind of came to that realization without even reading that book. You told me about it and I wanna, I wanna read it. It's kinda on my list. But, I've had anxiety, I've had depression, I. And I, in the last month, a month ago, I deactivated my Instagram and my Facebook and my depression and my anxiety are completely gone. Like, I am not worried about what other people are doing. I'm not seeing that I'm missing out on stuff. So I can attest that. And, and you don't reach, you don't go to grab for your phone. I mean, those are the ones that I struggled with. Instagram and Facebook in particular. At Facebook I could, I never really got into TikTok or any of that kind of stuff, but I will say that I had horrible anxiety and depression and in the last month I have had none. Zero. Like, what the heck? But that speaks to the power of these things. And I didn't even realize like, oh, like these people are hanging out and they didn't invite me. Or Oh, these people, you know, whatever, insert whatever. There's this feeling, um, there's a false sense of community. Like people say it connects us, but it doesn't. It's a false sense of connection. And then when you feel that you don't connect with the people you actually love, because., you saw them post that they drank coffee, so you feel like you're connected with them when you actually never did. That's just My daughter's, one of her teachers in school told her that it is a fake and lazy shot of like dopamine. So you're teaching your body unhealthy rhythms, right? Because that's not something you should get just by sitting down and flipping over your phone. So, that's, that's actually a really good point. I think the thing about connection's interesting because, if technology is basically stripping our humanity, one of the things it's doing is it is sort of a counterfeit connection. So for sure, seeing someone post about their coffee and you think, oh, I know what they did, so therefore I've connected is true. But I even like the amount of information you get from someone when you are in the same room as them is not the same as the amount of information you get when we're on a video chat. And then, If you reduce that even more, the amount of information you get when you're only on audio, and then reduce that only when you have an email and reduce that only when you have a text message or an Insta Chat. And so whereas we were billed to have all five senses experiencing humans and each other and like connecting with all five senses, we've reduced that down to a couple emojis or. Liking something . And now, now it's a little kilobyte. It's one kilobyte of information where we should be absorbing, you know, terabyte upon terabyte of information from interaction. So it's total counterfeit connection, which is, I feel like that's, that's referenced in the Bible, right?, things that are counterfeits like that is We are warned against counterfeits in that sense. I think for sure. I'm just like, quiet cuz like what can we, I mean, it, it almost feels. A little bit crazy to say Hey, we should just get off . And, and I don't wanna like tell people what they should do. And, and most of the time we're saying, Hey guys, we're not telling you what to do. But maybe this is one of those where I'm like, maybe we should really question who are we serving on there? And I know, I know so many people are like, oh, it's a tool and churches, and you're using it, and more people are hearing about Jesus than ever. But if it's counterfeit, it's counterfeit. Is it a true gospel? Is it a true Jesus? If we're hearing, you know, like I've been lonely watching other churches, having these amazing church services and all the cool people are on there and they only have like the hipster kids and the hipster editing. You know, I'm just saying , And I'm not trying to trash it, and I'm probably,, making a little bit, um, oversimplifying. But when you're doing that, when you're watching church on Sunday online, you're not going in person and then you're feeling, Hey, I've connected. Um, I, I am the AX church. I am doing everything with them. I, I listened to my pastor online, I shared the, you know, whatever. And I, I did my part to tell somebody about Jesus. I shared the little cliff notes of the church. Hmm. Yeah. don't know. And then, no, Nicki, I love everything you're saying. And then I struggle with. Flip it to the other side. I, so I don't wanna be, and I think we all agree addicted to, and there's a part of me that's like get rid of all of it. But then , if we completely get rid of all of it, am I too removed from the world? I do struggle with that because just what. Yeah, because we u right? Because we use it and our podcast has an Instagram account, and it's such a great way to, I hate to say, yeah, connect with people because, right. It's not real connection. And Nikki, we're just making fun of this. But yes, I also wanna say , it can be a tool. Ha, It. I mean, it, it is, and I'm not, I'm oversimplifying when I say get rid of it, but I definitely think there's something to, we need to decrease how much we're on. And I, and I feel like sometimes the only way to do that is. Delete it. Cold Turkey. Yeah, like it. I know Candy. You don't keep Facebook on your phone? I don't keep Facebook on my phone. Instagram's on there for my business and I have one for my puppy, but I'm able now because I took it off there not to sit and scroll, you know what I mean? My kids don't have it. I know we have different things on that, which is totally okay, but , We play games now. It's been one month that, you know, before I would lay in bed and think I was decompressing while I scrolled for three hours. And my kids would watch TV for however many hours. And now I'm like looking Let's hang out a game. Yeah, Yeah, Or, and I'm texting my friends like, Hey, I miss you . Like, , you know? No, it's good. And I mean, you brought it up so I say let's jump into the kid thing cuz I have two teenagers, one who's almost a teenager, and Nikki, you have one teenager and one who's almost a teenager. So me and my husband decided about a year ago when our oldest started high school that he could have an Instagram account, and so he opened one, but he's a boy, and so he was not really hardly ever on it, and still to this day, he's not very interested in it. My daughter, when she was in middle school, started asking and asking and asking for Instagram. We thought about maybe in seventh grade, but then we went to start the account. You have to put in their birthday and that you're not supposed to until they're 13. And I'm, I'm sure there are plenty of parents who don't do that, but me and Don, my husband were both like, okay, this seems like a good limit. And we told her, you're gonna have to wait until you're 13. I'm sorry. So when she was 13, that was like one of her birthday presents. And I, I struggle with it a little. Because of the things we were just saying. I know there's so much negative to it, but also there's something to be said about being in the world but also set apart. You know what I'm saying? So that, where is the line? Do I not let them have any social media that Instagram is the only thing they have and they're only allowed a certain amount, a a day to be on it? well, what are the parental? So I wouldn't, I personally am not gonna let my kids on it, but I. I think some people might not be aware of what's on there. So you think, especially if you, your algorithm is trained to yours, so you probably see cute memes and whatever it is that you see, but I have straight up seen porn and reported it and it, I was blocked for reporting it and. There's women sticking their butts out. There's women, the stuff on there is truly heinous. There was, a bir photographer here in Virginia. That had a guy in his hand sitting and then the girl was, her butt was in his lap and the whole butt was showing and it, you know, you're, it says you're not allowed to if it's not uncovered, if it's naked butt. But there was two tiny strips of lace covering the sides. And I could see the middle if you're watching the video, And I even zoomed cuz I was like, is this actually what I'm seeing? Is this Am I actually Her leather bits and it had a tiny piece of lace covering, but you could see everything. And I was shocked. I was shocked. My husband's on Instagram, your husbands are on Instagram, , and because I did that, now all the, all the bir ones pop up. Oh. No. having to block. Cause my algorithm was like, oh, she paused on this. Oh, she zoomed in on this. Yeah, cuz she so I. Yeah. I personally would not, I think I think yes, being in the schools, you know, like you don't necessarily have to homeschool me. This is another episode. I'm getting passionate, my two emotional sides getting out because like I get it. If you homeschool them, they're not. But I just think that like once they're trapped in that once they see it, you cannot stop. It is like, Yeah, How do you, you're, if you're 13, 14, 15, like how do you stop, when, when's enough you, that might make you feel something? I mean, I don't know. So I'm pretty passionate about it, but I, I don't condemn or judge people that decide differently, but I just. I've had struggles in those areas and I just don't want my kids to have struggles in theirs., forget the addictiveness. Like I wanna protect their eyes from like pornography and that kind of stuff. And it's on there. It's on there. A couple things that changed my mind about, or that, you know, I have toddler, so this is not a decision I have Not yet time. Maybe, maybe Instagram won't be a thing. That would be great. It'll be something worse, but . Um, but two things. One is, Andy Crouch talks about how the algorithms reward you at your worst. So literally it's training humanity to respond. Reactionary. Like to be reactionary, to be incensed, to be right. Like it does not reward us. Yeah. It does not reward us at our best. It rewards us at our worst. And so it's training us on a mass scale to. Be different people. And when I realized that, I thought, that's not great and not we're all children to start. Totally. But the other thing, is that we do leave digital footprint. And so when I had my girls, one of the things I really wanna do was blog and I'm like, Hey, it'd be really fun to do like a twin mom blog and. Oh. It didn't take me very long to realize that I was posting a bunch of pictures of my children on the internet that will be there forever. And then I realized we leave. I mean, I did a little bit of research about our digital foot. I mean, the amount of digital information people will have about our children by the time they are working, by the time that they have kids and a family. I mean, it's. It's an entire life recorded on the internet. And so I realized that's another thing. Like I, I wanna teach my children not just safety on the internet, but People are you know, ha have a vpn. Like we have, we now have VPNs in our home and on our phones, like, don't post pictures of yourself, don't share about your daily eating habits, all of these things, because there is, there is nefarious things happening, and I think there's a future of more of that. And so, anyway, those are two things that I was like, mm, no, we're not, we're not doing that when we get to that stage. But I, you know, I don't have teenagers right now and I could you don't have them begging you Yes. And if, if all of my daughter's friends were on Instagram , you know, that is so hard. Who wants to be the kid That's the odd kid out, you know? So I get she might sneak it. or maybe she'll sneak it. Who knows? But I hear they sneak it anyway. They, a lot of them will have an account the parents know about and then an account that the parents don't know about. So even if, you know, even if you let them, no matter what it might be, you know, doomed if you do, doomed if you don't. Or I said that wrong, but you It's true. I mean, but we, I still think as parents, we have to parent our convictions, so I, I don't think we can parent thinking, oh, well they might do this behind our back. That's not why I don't wanna parent that way. I like that. That's good. You're not saying it. Well, they're gonna have it anyway, so we might as well let'em have it. I like. No, I I mean, we all make mistakes, right? I have thought, I've wondered is this a mistake? That's the only social platform they have, but I do wonder, yeah, is this a bad idea? I don't know., I was wondering if it block, if it knows she's 13 and therefore it blocks what she's seeing Because I, the things that come up there are, because I'm on there for the photography, you know, I think Instagram, um, it rewards your, the business accounts for liking stuff. So if I'm liking. Stuff on the reels, then I notice that my content's being liked. And if you're not doing anything, I don't know how or why, but it's probably that it's rewarding that negative behavior. So I honestly will sit there. I'm not even looking at it. I'm just sitting and liking stuff. Right. Just so that I'm like being active on the photography one. And sometimes , I'm like, oh my gosh, I just like something crazy and I'll like, unlike it, the stuff. On there is predatory, is disgusting. And, and the crazy part is I remember one time several years ago, you know, before I knew better and I, I never thought anything of it. I put a picture of my daughter up there and like a diaper and only wearing a diaper and it wasn't. Wasn't sexual. It wasn't, it was just a cute little picture of her playing with something and that got removed as something disgusting. And I'm like, my little toddler playing in the mud in her diaper got removed and maybe I shouldn't have posted it. Whatever. And there's straight up porn a woman. Anna guy's lap, him holding her butt while you can see her nether parts. I got flagged for , it just now when I'm on there. It grays out the the content for me because I said I didn't wanna see it, so nobody, you know, instead of flagging that as inappropriate It doesn't make any sense. It doesn't make any sense. The same thing happened to me a years, no, it might have just been last year. I posted a funny thing. Josiah was without his shirt on, which is not inappropriate. Boys do that and he was sitting like him and the cat were interacting. It was, I can't even remember what it was, but I got, And you got flagged. I was like, what? What? Oh my gosh. Why? so, so, okay. But that is just crazy Right? Because of all we're, the world is an upside down kingdom , and so, I mean, forget that it's addictive. Like, um, like some of the things I was reading said , our sleep patterns are greatly disturbed because our dopamine, like you were saying, everything's messed up. We're, we're wanting to look at it. The blue light is everything. There's nothing that's good about it. And I actually go and do things now instead of sitting and like thinking of what I, and, and I've learned that I take pictures just because I want to, like, I'm like, oh, I'm with my friends. I take a picture and I don't have to question my motive. This is just a personal aside, I feel like I didn't, like when I'm sitting down to write a song, I'm not like posting a, like I'm recording it because. I wanna record it, not because I'm trying to put something out there for somebody to consume. It's just really weird and I, I'm, I'm getting very passionate about this topic cuz I'm like, it's bad. It, I, and I don't think there's anything wrong with not having it, like there's whole communities and whole life yeah. don't use it. So, I dunno. I Yeah, I have definitely stopped my consumerism behavior with it. Just not, I just don't really get on there, except for if I'm posting something for, you know, our podcast or whatever. Um, but I've struggled with tech for my little ones, even just like I'm at the very beginning. And technology is extremely pervasive at a really young age for them. And so just struggling with like, it's easy, like what are norms, what are. You know, trading reality for a tablet is not human behavior., that's not humanity.. , so we have tablets for the girls. We almost never get them out. They're just never out. We do however, love TV and movies like Chad and I, it's something we really love. So that's something we, with the girls a lot, so I'm always like, what part does. I don't know. It's just something, it's one of those weird balances of like figuring out Yeah. What, what's okay for them and I don't know, My parents said I was raised in front of the TV, and I guess. This is what came out. I don't know. They were like, you were fine. They're like you. Apparently. I watched Willow over and Oh my gosh. I loved Willow Willow. you guys in a willow. Willow. My mom gave us strict screen time limits. I loved video games, but yes, I also loved TV and cartoons. I mean, all the things. I think it is normal for children to wanna spend as much time in front of the screen as they can. I think, although maybe I was just a weirdo, but my mom was really, really strict. I think we got an hour, maybe two a day, probably depended on the day in school and all that. I don't know. She did not let us have that much, and so I am the same with my kids. They get screen time and they have to, you know, after school they have to do their homework and they usually have to earn it, you know, like do. All their chores have to be done. Their grades always complaining, like, uh, no one is strict. Like, no one has these rules, no one's as strict as you. And I'm like, We do. don't worry. We do I'm not your friend. I'm your mom. Get over it. We'll be friends Well, just what I mean, my kids are getting older, you know, I have, uh, almost 16 year old and so I'm trying to explain to them more and more like a huge reason why I give you limits on. Screen time or whatever is because I don't want you to be a screen addict. I don't think it's just social media. I think it's just, think just even picking up the phone, I think it's more than just social media. I think it's screens in general. The tablets, the video games. Yes. I do love watching tv. I mean, we all love the pastimes like, but if that's all you're doing, same thing as what you're saying, Nikki. I think if your habit, let's say, is to go to work every day, come home, eat dinner, and then sit in front of the TV every single night. And I think that was a habit maybe when we were kids, like that's what dads would do. So it's not social media, but you're still just teaching yourself to sit down and unplug every single night. And I think there are nights for that for sure. But is that the, is that the rhythm you want your life to take? Yeah. What about playing games? What about reading a book?. What about getting outside and taking a walk? There's, there's other things you can do, Yeah. I know families that have the rule that, uh, no screens during the week, so screen times only for weekends, which that's what you guys do, Nicky. Yeah, we occasionally, very occasionally, like if there's a day off the next day, you know, if there's a teacher work day the next day we'll let 'em have a weekday tech, but they are only allowed to have technology on the weekend and they. Um, earn it through the week through making sure if their bed's made, they can earn. I can't remember what it is. I feel like they can earn two hours per day. I mean, total. So they get like four hours for the weekend. So they can do two hours on Saturday and two hours on Sunday. And sometimes we'll let them have more, but we don't have a tech and all day long, almost every day, mom, can we, and I'm like, uh, like, like Candice said, I don't care. You can be upset. Go outside. Go stare at this sky I'm bored. That's good for you. Let yourself be bored. Do you think that people invented things by sitting on social media? No. Like we need people to be bored and come up with ideas. Yeah, it's worked for us and um, we're It's encouraging that it can be a thing Yes, it Cause I wanted that and then I had two one year olds and I was like, this is not going to work for me . But as they get older, it the easier it is, right? Because they actually can. Be creative. They can entertain themselves. It's not like I have to entertain too little people in order for them to not watch tv. It's gotten easier. So that encourages me that as they get older, like that could work. It's a thing, but I, it really is shocking to me when I, we go to the restaurants and I legit see, and I'm sorry if you guys do this, and forgive me, I'm not trying to be judgemental, but I am judging a little bit when I go to a restaurant and I see the three kids all on an iPad, I'm like, oh my gosh, do your kids actually know how to behave? Or I mean, I guess they don't need to. I'm sorry, I sound so self righteous right now. Guys, if you're having a hard day and you need to do We all have our own struggles. That is, I don't think any of our struggles here on conservative Christian moms. Never would I ever let my kids have any sort of screen at any sort of dinner table, whether we're out at a restaurant No, home, like that's not okay for me in my home. I will work on my judgment, but I definitely, if I, if you're at the restaurant and that's what your kids are doing, I'm judging you Okay. We should, we should talk about aspirations versus reality. Okay. Let's Okay, so my As, that's so funny you said that my aspiration before I had children, I was like, I will never let my children watch a show. During dinner That is outrageous. Not like at home, not like, you know, we're doing a TV dinner, but like we're not gonna sit at a restaurant, like they're gonna be here, be a people. And then I had twins and then I was like, you know when you just, especially on vacation, like when every meal's a restaurant and though. they're exhausted and I'm exhausted and they're insane and it's the end of the meal and you just need 10 minutes to talk to like, like an adult. Pull the phone out. I'm like, watch this show for 10 minutes while I finish this conversation. So realized we've gone out with you, but we weren't judging you. Cause we, it's different when you go out with, okay, now I feel bad. Okay. No, no, but no, I thought it was funny you brought that up because that's how, that's even how I still feel about it. I'm still, if someone else is doing it, I'm like, no, Shame on But, but yeah. I do think it's one of those things where it's like aspiration versus reality. I aspire to never, ever, ever do that. But you. There are times when it's in, yeah, there's like literally I'm at the end of my rope. This is happening for 10 minutes at a restaurant, but as they get older, it's more and more rare. Right. I especially think it's odd when older children or when it's just like we sit down, screening comes out. Yeah, I mean? Like this is what we're doing for tv, for for dinner. You're gonna have a when we're all hanging pretty extreme. is extreme. But to be fair, when we're all having a game night and the kids are like, can we have tech? And we're trying to hang out and have a cool mom time, we're like, yeah, yeah. That's So, okay, you're right. We, yeah, there's definitely times, I'm judging more screen time right, because we were trying to hang out and they know that we don't care. Like Yeah, that's They take advantage of us for Oh yeah, they definitely do. Are there are even days, you know, I'm pretty like, I'm very strict and regimented with the screen time, but are there days when I feel like crap and I'm just like, I just don't care. go get on your tech. Yeah, I just don't care. It's a good babysitter. Not even, I mean, my kids are old enough. They don't need a babysitter, but I don't know when they're all, when they're asking, asking, asking, complaining, complaining, complaining, and you're so tired and you don't feel good. You're just like, please, Oh, but this is a thing. Don't you feel like maybe this is a symptom of technology, but when we were their age, 10, 13, I never ever asked my parents. What should I be doing right now? Never. I was playing outside. I was roller skating, I was riding my bike, I was reading, I was blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Insert. My kids ask me constantly, I'm bored. What should I do? they're You're like, what do you mean? Are you asking for chores? Is that I, and now I do that, I'm like, go clean your room. And they're like, Ugh, don't ask. don't ask me I always tell my kids, only boring people get. Amen. I like to be bored. My brain needs to be bored a minute like. one. Yeah. In the car. That's , another one of my aspirations, like I believe so strongly in the power of boredom and that your brains need downtime. Especially developing kids' brains, like they need to get in the car from school and be bored for a little while before they're stimulated again. Their brains need to like trash some stuff. You know, and so, yeah. Yeah, like that's a literal thing. But, we take annual trips to Florida to see some family, and we started this when the girls were really little, and so by 18 months, . I was like, we're getting screens in the car., this is happening That's a long trip. Okay. Super long trip, two full days of driving. But then after that first trip they were like, oh, we, what we do now is we watch TV in the car. So there was like six months of an argument every time we got in the freaking car. Now they're older now. The screens are never on unless we're on a long trip. But it's another one of those, like, I'm, I'm the man who's just like turning the screen on every time we get in the freaking car, even though I don't even believe. Because I don't feel like arguing right now. Yep. I appreciate you since I just judged everybody and then proceeded to say I do the same thing. I, I literally said that I judge other people about the same thing I do. Yeah. grace. There's grace for you Listen, we all know we shouldn't judge. The Bible says don't judge others, but we all do it. We, whether we mean to or not, we do it. We just have to ask We're in the flesh until Jesus comes back. Oh. Oh. That makes me remember. I mean, this is totally an aside, but, the Bible study we're all doing right now, and technology makes me think of it all the time that, , on the podcast we were listening to She Reads Truth thing. It, oh, and technology's good in podcasts. We love podcasts. Okay. That's totally another rabbit hole, but, Technology makes me long for heaven. The way that that girl in the podcast talked about it, that what she longs for is a tongue that doesn't criticize and a heart that doesn't long or, you know, just I feel like technology makes us hungry all the time for more, and that's not our final state. In Christ, we are complete. You know what I mean? And it technology makes me long for. Oh my gosh. And you just see everyone hating each other and judging each other and like saying horrible things to each other. I just long for not that an echo chamber of everybody's gross beliefs. I don't know. I, I landed that weird, but you got it. You got what I'm trying to throw out there. one thing I've been really working on. As it pertains to other technology, not just social media, but is this idea that if technology's taking away our humanity, I'm gonna try to avoid it. So for instance, when I'm at the grocery store now, I love the self checkouts. Let me tell you what, for someone who does not like to wait and does not want. Have weird conversations with weird , weird people when, cuz I'm tired and I'm in a hurry. Um, I've really been trying to avoid the self checkouts because the other day I was at the grocery store and you know how they're turning all of them into self checkouts. Like there's there's a Walmart near us. That's almost all the South Point one is like 30 of them. Yeah, it's insane. But there was this, it was early in the morning, I really needed heavy cream for my coffee.
So you know, it's like 7:30 AM I'm walking around and there's all these people with self checkout and there's this nice little old man standing at the only open line at the end of the line, just waiting. Here's all these people and he's just standing there and I was. Am I really gonna use a self checkout when this sweet little old man is standing there just waiting for someone to need him, you know? So of course I like walked down and man. Yeah. yeah, like I had a short, very short conversation. It wasn't like, you know, transformative, but it just, it really made me realize, yeah, there's just so many ways that technology's ruining our ability. Love people and be Jesus. And anyway, so that's something I'm working on. it's good. Hmm. It, it allows us to unplug from everybody and everything. Sometimes when I'm listening to like a really good podcast or maybe like a book on Audible and I'm running errands, I'll just have it playing in the car and, you get to where you're going and you stop and you're like, oh, I could just put in my EarPods and continue listening while I run in and do what I need to do. But every time I've thought about doing that, something in me stops myself and says, then you're not aware of anyone around you. Mm. when I'm home and I'm listening, I mean, I'm usually doing it when no one's home. So it doesn't matter. I don't need to be aware. No one's home. But that's exactly the point. If when I am listening, I'm not aware of anything else going on, just what I'm specifically focused on, you know, and how are we gonna shine? Like how do we shine area. Yeah, you're convicting me in that area cuz I listen to the audio books all the time and today. So when you said that it was like, cause today my kids probably said, Hey mom, mom, mom, mom like 10 times. But like, when I'm trying to work, I try to zone everybody out. So I'm like, but it was rude. I should like set I don't know. You're working Yeah. Working. I was I love you guys. actually have to earn a living is the thing. we all work from home and we never get real escapes, I don't know, maybe have to have boundaries too. So if the kids know you're working, you know, do you have boundaries that say Hey, when mom's working, you can't keep interrupting me. I need those. I actually had that talk with Eliana today. I was like, you have talked to me every three minutes, and she got really offended. And this is, I mean, and that's your job., it's fair to say this is mom's job and it's serious. This is how I make money. And when you interrupt me every five minutes, I cannot focus. I can't get it done. I have to do this . I okay, so I, you guys are so gracious to me. You're always like, no, you're just having boundaries. Thanks guys. it's allowed. It is super loud, Thank you guys. I need you cuz I'll go all the way the other way. I'll go live in like the village, like Do you remember that movie? yes, I loved it. That'll be I know. Same. that was an option, I would totally do it. I mean, in a, in a not creepy way though. I mean, I might do it in a creepy way, I don't know. Where it's not a cult and you're not being manipulated by someone outta fear. Yes. That would be ideal. like where we're in real, I definitely have longing for just real community, like where we use technology, like we're not getting rid of technology. We'll use it for the things we need it for, but where it's taking away connection. I'm landing on, I need to really fight for like, you know, like what if your marriage is only good because you sit and scroll and he sits and scrolls. Like how sad is that? Like, Yeah. There's a lot of awesome modern conveniences that come with technology that I'm so thankful for. Seriously. Hm. love a lot of our modern conveniences, but I think, yeah, if we let it control our attention and our focus, that's bad. Very bad. Yeah. Um, Andy Crouch has the example of, he has this thing I've told you guys. I think on a personal level, I don't think I've talked about it in the podcast this Alternative. One would be toil and leisure, and the other is work and rest. And so we live in a culture of toil and leisure. We do annoying work all day so that we can desperately have a weekend. It's like, just like that song, everybody's living for the weekend, for the working for the weekend. But we were made for good work that leads to good rest. It's like very fulfilling. And so one of his examples with technology, is that typically technology? While it's convenient for you, it's only allowing you leisure and someone still has to toil. So when you order Chinese food to be delivered, someone else is making it. Someone else is doing the good work of making food where your family could be working around the kitchen, doing food together, doing the good work someone else is doing. Hmm. then someone else is driving to your house in toil, and then you're just in leisure. You haven't earned the meal you're eating, you just are right. So it's like not even a fulfilled activity to eat the food that you lazily acquired. Not to say you didn't work hard for the money that you used to pay for it, but it's such a, it's such a totally different way of living and thinking like, is this action work and rest? Or is it toil and leader and what am I losing? It's like that. There was something on the She Reads Truth podcast a long time ago that said, you never know the power of your.. No. Like you know what you're giving up when you say yes, you know the sacrifices of a yes, but you don't always think about the sacrifices of a no. And so it's the same thing, when you say, no, I'm not gonna cook my own food, I'm gonna order out, what do you. And as a lifestyle, if we do that a million times in a million different ways with a million different kinds of technology, like what are we losing? What have we lost, what are we missing out on? Because we're not doing work and rest, we're doing toil and leisure. So anyway, I love the My mind is like, yeah, I'm gonna have to read all the all his books. Pretty much I learned all this from one podcast from him, so I'll, I'll link the I was gonna You don't even have to read all the books. I mean, you should read the books probably. But get the cliff notes in the podcast, Yes, But that is a lazy, that's a, that's a toil. That's a no I don't know. He's on the, he talks about podcasts. He said one of the reasons he loves podcasts is that it's, it's maybe one of the only remaining ways that you can watch people have conversation. And so while certainly some podcasts can be toil and leisure, there is definitely that human element, the humanity that podcasts have, that a lot of other tech of that type doesn't. Yeah, we're processing out our thoughts in real time. I, I definitely long for an easier existence that's not polluted by a false sense of belonging. And so that's where I'm landing with it for now, and that's where I'm in a fight for it. I'm not saying it. I do think there's a lot of evil in it, but I'm not gonna name it all as evil. We'll probably still use it as a tool, but really fight for true belonging, true community, authentic, um, , authentic, Connection. you know? Yes. Thank you. So yeah, I think that's where I'm landing on this, that we have to be really careful that we're not, having a counter. Yeah. I mean, the Bible says guard your heart above all else. It determines the way you will go. Yeah. You're gonna love us, but you're gonna hate us. On this one. Maybe on this one people are gonna be you go? You're gonna I would love to hear comments on this. I would love to hear, I would love to hear feedback. So if you're not following the Instagram, you should, we'll probably do some post on this one on, I wanna hear what people think. Do you feel like it's evil? Like do you feel like there's a ba a better balance? Do you, I don't know. I, I would be super curious. Maybe we can throw a poll up or Talk back to us. Yeah. Yeah. You're gonna hate us, but you're gonna love us She nailed it.