EP 27: How Putting Your Phone Away Restores Focus, Faith, And Real Connection

Your phone promises connection, but what if it’s crowding out the people and peace you want most? We unpack the quiet cost of constant screens—how attention shatters, anxiety creeps in, and relationships thin out—then build a better way with Scripture, brain science, and practical habits. We’re not anti-tech; we’re pro-intention. From Psalm 84’s vision of richer desire to Ephesians 5’s call to redeem the time, we frame a simple truth: your heart follows your attention, and attention follows design. So we redesign.

We talk candidly about military rhythms, boredom in the field, and the lonely hours at home during deployments that invite doomscrolling. We also address leadership by group text, why “formation times” changing 12 times kills trust, and how clear plans and in-person communication restore order. On the personal front, we tackle the myth of multitasking, the awkward but effective move of stopping mid-sentence when someone looks at their phone, and how micro-moments at the table and couch can either heal or hurt your home.

You’ll hear how dopamine spikes rewire reward systems, why withdrawals are normal when you step back, and how to rebuild focus with paper Bibles, paper journals, and long-form reading. We share tactics that actually work: delete tempting apps, create friction with a phone bag or a high shelf drop zone, set phone curfews, and adopt a weekly low-tech sabbath. Prefer calls over long text threads, protect meals as phone-free, and replace the reach-for-your-phone reflex with prayer, a short walk, or a single page of a real book. Leaders, model sane boundaries and trust your teams; spouses, honor presence as a love language.

If you’re ready to exchange the algorithm’s novelty for a life of depth, this conversation gives you the plan and the push. Subscribe, share with a friend who needs a reset, and leave a review with the one boundary you’ll try this week. Your attention is precious—let’s spend it on what lasts.

Transcript

Setting The Stage: Phones And Presence

SPEAKER_04 0:22

Hey, y'all, Brittany Brown here. Welcome back to another episode of the Military Wellness Collective, where I'm joined by Brian and Kelly.

SPEAKER_01 0:29

I guess.

SPEAKER_04 0:30

Hello and Joshua.

SPEAKER_01 0:31

Hello.

SPEAKER_04 0:32

So great. So today we are going to be talking about putting our phones away. What a great topic. I'm excited. We've mentioned this on several podcasts you've probably listened to, or if you're new joining us, you haven't heard it yet. But if you listen to any of the old ones, you'll hear us talk about. Oh, yeah, put your phone away. Let's let's be connected and intentional. So, does anybody have any immediate thoughts on this topic that you're just burning to say right now?

SPEAKER_03 1:00

Well, I want to say we're not experts on it. I'll speak for myself. I am not, but I have had different periods of time that I've taken off of social media and or just limited my time on my phone, period. And it has been so, so good. And I'm always like, why don't I do it more? Right. You know? But yeah, it's not we're still learning and growing, and the value of it is.

SPEAKER_00 1:26

Yeah, I would also say I understand the irony of us on a podcast that people are almost certainly listening to on their phones, and that all of us listen to podcasts on our phones. I understand the irony of us saying put your phone away. We're talking about some very specific things. We're not haters on technology, we're not haters on smartphones. We actually love lots of cool things that smartphones allow us to do, but we need to understand the dangers of it as well. Similar to any other technology, you know, automobiles are amazing. They help us move around, but they also have inherent dangers when we get a bunch of people flying around at high speeds, and that can be very dangerous. Yeah.

Not Anti-Tech: Framing The Problem

SPEAKER_02 2:14

Yeah, this is also one of those topics where I think it's like we all, I think collectively, the general public is like, yeah, it's probably good not to be on your phone a whole bunch of the day. Right. So that's kind of like a starting point of everybody agrees. But then everybody falls into the trap of being on their phone all the time. So they need they like we could walk around, we could go around the table here and we could all just be like, yeah, be on your phone list, and then episode over. Or we go around the room, we say, Yeah, we should be on a phone list, and then we talk about all the reasons why. And the reasons why is what actually like helps us stay consistent with not being on our phones all the time.

SPEAKER_00 2:57

Yeah, I also think it's helpful to realize. So we are our generation, I think, can be a little bit helpful for folks. We're not digital natives. None of us, the four of us, are not digital natives. We did not have smartphones when we were 11 years old. We did not have smartphones when we were 15 years old because they didn't exist.

SPEAKER_01 3:18

Right.

SPEAKER_00 3:19

However, we had smartphones as very young adults. And so we're not digital natives, but we're also not 65 years old, and it was a big challenge for us because we're still young, our brains were still pliable. So I feel like we're in this space where we can we have struggled with all the problems we're gonna talk about. We have struggled to idolize our phones and spend way too much time on our phones and everything else. Like we've struggled with this, but also maybe we can look at it from a slightly different perspective than our audience that is digital natives, which is really most of the audience, I think.

Military Life, Loneliness, And Doomscrolling

SPEAKER_04 3:58

Yeah, yeah, that's good. I think you using that term digital native is interesting. And I'm like, we're in a sweet spot of like, okay, we're young enough to know how this works, how this goes, and and the detriment of it. And I you might be thinking, like, why are you gonna talk about putting your phone away on a military wellness podcast? I think it's really important for the guys. There's times probably when you're in the field and you're bored. Now you just pull out your phone, you know, instead of connecting with one another. For wives, when you're lonely at home during deployment while your husband's in the field, while the kids are in bed, it's really easy to just doom scroll or do things instead of or when the kids aren't in bed.

SPEAKER_02 4:38

Yeah, or when the kids aren't in bed.

SPEAKER_04 4:40

Like there's just so many reasons we've referenced to this on other podcasts, and we're like, we need to do a whole episode on why it's important to put our phones away, some practical ways that we can do that and realize like, look at your screen time. I I know this is probably out of context, but for me, when Jesus talks about where your money is, like there your treasure is, where our time is spent shows where our priorities are too. So just the likeness of that. Does anybody have I know the Bible doesn't inherently speak to phones? What? But it speaks to practical practical application in every area of our lives. So does anybody have a verse that you're like, when I think about this topic, for me, this is helpful?

SPEAKER_02 5:22

Yeah, because the Bible wasn't written to us, but it was written for us. Yeah, yeah, which is helpful.

SPEAKER_03 5:28

I have one in Psalm 84. I'm gonna start in verse one and then jump down to verse 10. But how lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord of hosts. My soul longs, yes, faints, for the courts of the Lord. My heart and flesh sing for joy for the living God. And then verse 10 for a day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness. And this was ESV. But just from my experience in, you know, taking a break, some have been longer than others. Just the value in like I don't know, not missing out on the richness of the time with the Lord and time with people that I love. Like the richness of life, I guess, the things that matter, the people in front of me, the time in the word with the Lord.

SPEAKER_04 6:23

I'm just more aware of it and and I'm I don't know, like struggling with the words and like Would you say you're more peace-filled, or do you struggle with anxiety more during that time, or when you are like doom scrolling on your phone?

Scripture Anchors For Attention And Time

SPEAKER_03 6:37

I mean, doom scrolling brings in the anxiety, the comparison, the even I would say touches of like depression. Okay. You know, okay. Um, I've noticed that for sure. Yeah. Which there's so much brain science there too. I can turn out on that all day. I mean but but but I think like so. I took, I mean, it was probably two years ago. There's three months that I took off and of social media, which made me have less screen time. That's really right mostly what my time is on my phone. I don't I'm not a I don't play games or do anything like that. So that's my main thing on my phone. But I just was aware of the people in my life more. And that was such a cool thing. And were you aware of anything else?

SPEAKER_00 7:22

Like can I go ahead. I'm one of the people in your life. And I felt that. I felt that. You I felt that you were more present in those moments.

SPEAKER_03 7:34

And that makes me so sad that it was like a noticeable difference. But I yeah, like I just I felt like I was more in tune with my kids and my husband, you know, like where they were and maybe emotionally, like just all that stuff. And then yes, even myself, just more at peace and not struggling with it's it's so weird. Like I can't even tell you like exactly what makes me feel anxious, or I it it is just the it's like a soul level thing. And I think from this verse, sorry, it was verse one and two that I read in Psalm 84. My soul longs, yes, faints for the courts of the Lord. Like, I'm not always there, but I want to be. And it's so easy to doom scroll. That is what is like I think it's just easy and you don't have to, and it takes discipline to do something else and like maybe get in the word or spend quality time with somebody. Cause I'm like, why can't I just always long for that and not long for the doom scrolling? Yeah. But I think is maybe that's part of it, it's just like the ease and you don't have to well, the dopamine release and all the thing that's happening.

SPEAKER_04 8:45

I do want to touch on we're talking about doom scrolling. Social media is not the only issue with our phones. Like if we're bored and we have a thought or a question pops in our head, what is the natural tendency? Google like, oh, Google has an answer for that. Now there's like AI overviews, so you don't have to read whole articles. Like it's dangerous. We need to be aware of the dangerous point. I see Brian.

SPEAKER_00 9:08

Can you Brittany? You said why don't you geek out a little bit on the brain silence science? I think it is helpful. And and maybe people listen to us that don't geek out on some of that kind of stuff. But like what is happening in our brains to an extent.

Anxiety, Comparison, And Peace

SPEAKER_04 9:23

Yeah, I uh one thing that really makes me geek out on this is how much information we're gaining about it every month, like scientific evidence that's coming out. And it I often tell our kids, I feel like this is gonna be like smoking. You know, when it came out, it was like, oh, this is it can be good for you in moderation and blah, blah, blah. Now there's warnings on everything. Don't smoke. If you smoke, it's bad, blah, blah, blah. All this stuff. I feel like social media and internet usage is gonna be the same. But geeking out on this a little bit, I'll try to keep it quick. When you are on social media, this is like old science from like two years ago, you are using one side of your brain, a different side. I can't remember if it's right or left, but you're using a different side than you are using when you're engaging someone face to face. So if you are on social media back two years ago, it they were saying, the scientists were saying that it would take 15 to 20 minutes after coming off of social media to actually engage fully present with a real human being in front of you. And I took that to heart two years ago because I noticed something in my own life was I would be really short with our kids or short with whoever was in front of me, or if they asked me a question. And then I realized, like, oh, because my brain literally cannot catch up with reality, what's actually in front of me, not virtually. Also, dopamine releases from social media, and it's not just social media, just like Googling, like quick information that releases dopamine. Dopamine can be a happy hormone, so much to where they're saying now our dopamine is releasing at such rapid rates because of internet usage and social media usage that we can't enjoy a baby laughing or a sunset. We don't know how to actually see nature or people around us or to acknowledge beauty and humans. There's just so many detriments to our mind and what that's doing. Also, attention span is decreased. Uh what we're actually we're I read a scientific research article that was talking about what's actually happening to how much knowledge we can actually attain and turn to wisdom because we just have information overload. There's mind tiredness, brain gratitude. Gratitude is, you know, yeah, less. Yeah. It's so much. Yeah, so much. There, there's even more than that. I just God created us as human beings with a mind, and I like to think of it as the most intricate computer system that's being hijacked and we're allowing it to be. And we need, and I'm not against technology. I have a smartphone, my blog, we do this podcast. Yeah. But I do want to be very diligent with how it's utilized. So what were you gonna say, babe?

Brain Science: Dopamine And Attention

SPEAKER_02 11:59

Yeah, well, there's so many different things I want to pull on there, but like if you do stop using social media or you stop using your phone for a period, take a fast from it for a period of time. You guys were mentioning how you can't appreciate certain sounds, a baby cooing or a sunset or visualization, those kinds of things. How long do you think it takes before you start to see some of those benefits come back and true appreciation? Does it take a little while or is it almost instantaneous?

SPEAKER_04 12:31

It is not instantaneous. There's actually withdrawals, which a lot of psychologists are talking about. The withdrawal from utilizing your phone, even looking up something on the internet on a laptop or a desktop computer is significantly different than on your phone.

SPEAKER_03 12:47

And you know, something I noticed when I first kind of went off, I um I would subconsciously like just open my phone and try to go to it, but then it was signed out, so I couldn't, or you know, like I deactivate it or whatever my stuff. So, but that was weird because it was like, wow, I went on my phone to maybe look at my calendar or something else or weather, and I went there and it was just like, ooh, that's terrible. Yeah, because it's like addiction. And yeah, and then another thing, I just lost it.

SPEAKER_00 13:18

Well, that's kind of like what Joshua was saying is we're at the point now where everybody says we're on our phones too much, but nobody really intended to do it. Nobody, nobody sets out, nobody wakes up in the morning and says, you know what, I want to spend eight hours today on Instagram. Yeah, like nobody does that. If you do, that's a whole different discussion. But instead, what is happening is we're falling into it. And so one of the passages that comes to my mind is I feel like I reference it all the time on this podcast for some reason, but in Ephesians chapter five, look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise, but as wise, making the best use of the time because the days are evil. Again, ESV. So we are to make the best use of the time. And there are there are things about smartphones that actually help us do that, but there's a whole lot about smartphones that rob us of that ability to make the best use of the time. And so we actually want to get the goodness from technology and leave all the badness. We're talking a lot about the badness, and that's because it's a big problem. But I but kind of what Kelly's getting at and what Joshua got at, it's unintentional. Like the habit of our brains of like, oh, I'm bored, I pick up my phone, I I I go to this, and I don't even think about it. It's not an intentional action, and God calls us to make intentional actions to decide before God what we want to do and walk forward in what we want to do.

SPEAKER_02 15:00

Yeah, and if you're gonna try to re redo a habit and change your habit, it takes what 30 days and like a thousand times of doing it over and over and over again to change the habit.

SPEAKER_04 15:11

I'll hit on that in just a second after I want to talk about the habit and neuropathways with brain science.

SPEAKER_03 15:16

If you I did, I remember what I was gonna say. Another weird thing at the beginning, as far as like just retraining and getting rid of the habit, I guess, is I wanted like I started finding other things to scroll besides social media, which was so weird. And that's when I had to go to the screen time thing. So I like did Pinterest because I'm like, that's not social media. But then it's like, oh my gosh, I'm scrolling, I'm doom scrolling. Yes. And then it was like from my email, even just like shopping, you know, like going to a website. And that's when I realized like this is a problem because I'm I'm finding other things to just scroll, even though I'm off of that. So it was just I don't know. It was a cool experiment because I I learned so much about myself.

Withdrawal, Habits, And Neural Pathways

SPEAKER_04 15:59

It ties together with the question Joshua asked. Does what did you ask something about? Like does it take? And that ties together. And this is God is so amazing. Neuropathways, we're learning so much about that. Like you, I'm sure you've all probably heard of it. If you haven't, just look it up. You'll see all the science studies. There's really cool videos of like what the pathways are doing inside your brain, like from CAT scans and different things, and like how they're forming and fusing together. But it takes a while because you've created a habit and it's like, I'm just gonna say, it's like any other addiction. Yeah, addiction. It does not just end quickly. And I love this passage and I've referenced it multiple times on the podcast in Colossians three, where it talks about putting off and putting on. You can't just put off and think it's gonna change. You have to actually intentionally start doing something else. So, because the pathway that you've created from doom scrolling or consistently checking your phone, it's an easy tread pathway. And the way that I always tried to explain this to health coaching clients when I coached them was if you go to a field and someone has walked the same path from their house to the barn every day, what happens to the grass? It gets tread down, the path is there. But if you need to go a different way to the barn and the grass has not been mowed, what does that look like? It's really long and you're gonna be weeding through that. And it's going to take time to tread that path down in that grass. That's like the best way that I can think of what is actually happening to that neural pathway. So it's gonna take time and intention, but both are hard. You can keep losing time and not stewarding time well and think that's easy, but really it's really difficult. You're probably ruining relationships. There's other struggles in your life where you don't have self-control, there might be other addictions, or you can choose the hard to live intentionally and create another path. And that's gonna be life-giving for not just you, but everybody around you. So what Kelly's talking about is what the hey, I struggled and I realized there was a bigger issue. And what you're asking is, does that go away right away? And it's like, no. Can you intentionally go out and stare at a sunset? Yes. And you need to ask God, like, help me to see the beauty. Because usually what will happen is you'll stand there and you're gonna be bored to death. Like, what feeling like you gotta like anyway, feed that digress. Yeah, yes, Brian.

SPEAKER_00 18:23

So can I there's there's some other dangers here. Uh, I'm trying to think through military and how this is affected. So a waste of time. Like your job, if you're in active duty military life, is really important again, as a guy who now sleeps under the very blanket of freedom that you provide. Thank you. Thank you. Your job's important, and so you wasting time, you know, doing other things instead of your job, like that's a problem. And so focus on that. I think also it shortchanges how work is actually done. So I I always like to think of guys before email, I like to think of guys before text messages, like Chesty Poehler, famous Marine Corps general for those that are not Marines.

SPEAKER_04 19:13

Um, like Joshua wanted to name one of our children after him. Just a fun side note. Go ahead. Chesty Puller, I interrupted you.

SPEAKER_00 19:20

That's fine. Archie Bald would have been a great thing. So so like people are those guys, they did stuff, right? We fought World War II without email. We fought all sorts of like we did all these things without these, but it's so easy, and and we actually lose trust in lower level leadership because oh, I just text everybody, like everything happens in group text. And I I was talking to a Marine just a couple weeks ago, and he was saying, talking about how the word for when formation was the next day has changed like 12 times in the past two hours. I'm like, that's ridiculous. Yeah, it's crazy. You could never do that before text messaging.

SPEAKER_01 20:02

Yeah.

Stewarding Time: Ephesians 5 Wisdom

SPEAKER_00 20:03

And so instead of guys making a decision and saying formation tomorrow morning is at 0600 and then leave them alone until 0600. Now it is I can text people like, oh, I had this idea and I need this to happen before 0600. Like, no, no, no, leave people alone until 0600. And then you have a formation and you tell people what's needed, or show up to the office, or whatever the work environment is. We are really shortchanging how work gets done, how communication happens, how I can trust lower level leaders. It's it's so crazy how work is getting done these days.

SPEAKER_02 20:40

Oh, yeah. And and the the part of that that I think people might lose is that the it is hard work to actually create a schedule and then stick to that schedule and then be able to tell people, hey, tomorrow this is the time, and it's not changing. The the the danger we fall into is so many people see that as oh no no no. It we're trying to do these beneficial things, so we're gonna keep changing it because we the the word ever is changing because the situation keeps changing, we got to stay up on this, whatever it is. But that's actually the lazy way of living through that cycle. And I I'm thinking about Proverbs 18, 9. It says, He who is slothful in his work is a brother to him who is a great destroyer. Or Proverbs 15, 19, the way of a sluggard is like a hedge of thorns, but the pathway of the upright is a level highway.

SPEAKER_00 21:41

That's so interesting that you that's so interesting that you went to it is it's a harder way to use your path analogy, Brittany, to the to the barn, to use your like it is, it's a harder way to work to say what you mean, mean what you say. So if you're if you're listening to this and you're in charge of other people, take this to heart. Okay, how can I stop doing this? How can I at the end of work tell people what they need to know before they leave, leave them alone until they show up to work the next day? Can you do that? I I would argue 363 out of 365 days a year, you could probably do that. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 22:25

I just want to add to that too. Like, marriage is a vocation. So if you're married, those verses can be applied to that too. Like, are you slothful in your marriage because you're not putting down your phone? Or maybe you over-communicate things that you shouldn't, like, oh, I'll be home at two, and then you forget to tell her you're not coming home till four, and then it's like, oh, well, now I'm not home till six thirty. Like, are you creating issues there with your phone and not working well, or the way you're communicating? I don't, there's just so much there.

Work Culture, Leadership, And Text Creep

SPEAKER_02 22:54

Yeah, I think we've all been across the table or sitting at uh having coffee with somebody or sitting down with somebody and just talking to them. And if they keep looking at their phone or looking down at their phone when you're talking, you it's hard to have a really hard to have a conversation with them. It what are they communicating for? Yeah, they're telling you what you're saying doesn't matter, they're not really listening, their mind is divided. The your relationship is really hurting. You know what I started doing.

SPEAKER_00 23:24

I I noticed this, I don't know, two years ago. And I started doing something in that scenario. I stopped talking.

SPEAKER_04 23:31

Yes, we do the same.

SPEAKER_00 23:32

I literally stop talking, mid-sentence, usually, and they're like, No, no, I'm listening. I'm like, no, I'll wait. And I just make it awkward. Yeah, and it rarely happens anymore. It'll happen with new people, but it just you just you can help build that culture around yourself, but stop talking to somebody that's looking at their phone. You're wasting your time, your energy. They're not listening. You can't so women can context shift faster than men. Kelly and I have talked about this a lot recently. Women can context shift faster, but nobody's actually doing two things at once.

SPEAKER_04 24:09

No, no, no.

SPEAKER_00 24:10

Women look like they are because they're context shifting so fast. I don't. There was a fun story in our household just a couple days ago, and Kelly told me two things to do in a row, and I was doing the second one, and she's like, Why didn't you do the first one? I'm like, I'm doing the second one. You gave me two things to do. Or she'll ask me two questions that if I answer one of them, it like contradicts the other one. And I'm like, You can't ask the two questions at one time. That's too fast. Yeah, nobody's actually doing two things at one time. And so when if somebody's if you're talking to somebody and they pick up their phone and look at their phone, just stop talking.

SPEAKER_04 24:46

They might be hearing you, but hearing and listening are two different they hear your voice moving through you, but they don't hear listen what you're saying.

SPEAKER_02 24:55

And folks, if you're gonna do one of these fasts or if you're gonna break away from social media and stuff, it might take a little while. That's why I was asking that question. Because I've talked to people who are you you've probably all talked to people who are like this too, who are so inundated with electronics that having a conversation with them even after they've put it away for a period of time is difficult because their brain waves have changed to, you know, 50 characters comments and then not paying attention to you while they're talking or while you're talking. And they'll they'll their eyes will drift away, they'll kind of like look at other things, even if it's not on their phone, because they've been trained, their mind is looking at other things, doing other things, thinking about other things, and just thinking about what they're gonna say next.

SPEAKER_03 25:44

I know, and have a little quick and sometimes I think it's like they're not even in reality, you know, it's like because they're so in this other world. It makes sense. One thing I just want to say, like, it's important what we replace this time with. Yes. And so what I realized about myself when I do this is like I'm, you know, gaining knowledge, I should put that in quotations, from all this stuff that I'm like looking at or whatever. That's not it's not truth. It's not the things that I want to grow in. And I just realized like my need, like I need the word of God. Like that needs to be more than any time spent on social media. And it's so much more valuable. And that takes me back to the verse that I read. You know, it's just like for a day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere, like a thousand minutes or a thousand days, you know, on social media would never give me what a thousand minutes would give me in God's words. It's just like it's just the quality and richness that the Lord wants us to see in our lives and experience in Him, like you know, we're missing that with sounds yeah.

Relationships, Multitasking Myths, And Respect

SPEAKER_00 26:52

The brain science is your brain is telling you there's gonna be some sort of amusement if you pick up your phone. Like there's gonna be something cool, interesting, whatever if you pick up your phone, so do that. Whereas picking up the Bible, picking up a book, looking at your husband, wife, child, sunset, whatever is gonna be more difficult. And you this one's easier, this one's better. And so your brain is like telling you this one's better.

SPEAKER_04 27:26

It makes me think of you saying amusement, it makes me think of a book. I think it's called Amusing Ourselves to Death. It's a great book, like just hits on a lot of the books.

SPEAKER_00 27:35

And that's an old book. I think that was written in the 1980s, back in the 1900s, and he's talking about television and it, but it's so applicable to the modern situation, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 27:48

So we've talked about social media, we hit on just shopping, looking on things online, doing all of the things that just like take up our space. We don't really talk about text messaging too much in a conversation form. Can I just I might be alone on an island here, but can I just encourage people if you're gonna text message and it's gonna go back and forth more than a couple times, that's not text conversation. Like call the person so you can hear the voice, hear the inflection in their voice, or hear how they're set up the client. We're losing something when we just relegate every conversation to a text message.

SPEAKER_04 28:28

It makes me think of when Kelly and I had our walk a couple of years ago, which ended up spurning the double dates, and now this podcast, like we would text each other occasionally, but we've still felt so disconnected. Like never ended up, yeah. I don't know, we just needed each other. You said something a minute ago, babe, that made me laugh. 50 characters or something in text messages. It makes me think about a rule we had with our kids when they had phones when they were young teenagers. Joshua had a very strict rule that you could not use text lingo, you had to write full words, and he could use punctuation too. They would lose their phone because you know we had full access to them. When you start talking in text lingo, you lose your phone. Because he was just like, I want you to be able to think well. You are not going to text. Don't talk to me, IDK. Don't say that to me. Say, I don't know. Like, don't talk like that. And our kids thought it was crazy. Now it's funny because they're all two are adults, and one is almost an adult, and they're like, Yeah, I see the benefit. Thanks. But that Joshua is a stickler for text messages. Well, oh, go ahead, Frank. Fantastic.

SPEAKER_00 29:45

One we didn't talk about, but I'm gonna say it. Use a paper Bible and a paper journal.

SPEAKER_04 29:50

Amen.

Replacing Screens With Scripture And Beauty

SPEAKER_00 29:51

So we talk about building new pathways to the barn, so to speak, spending time in the Lord's courts, like just detach that time with the Lord. Sometimes we reference phones on our or Bible on our phone. There's times for that, but default use a paper Bible, paper journal. Read books, old-fashioned books, read long form articles, listen to podcasts, longer form content. Read that, build that habit. Prefer in-person conversation, as Joshua was just saying, if it's gonna take five back and forths on a text message, that's not a text conversation. That should be an in-person conversation if at all possible. Remove the constant companion. So having your phone within arm's reach at all times, like this isn't your rifle in a combat zone. Like you can be without your phone for an hour. You can be without your phone for a day, you can be without your phone for a week. Tonight, remove the constant companion. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 30:48

That helped me with that. This might sound extreme to many of you, but I bought a little bag when I was really struggling with phone usage and really wanting to detox and not be attached to it so often after I read a book. Anyway, I put my phone in the bag. I actually ordered it from Cultivate What Matters. It is a phone bag and it cinches, and I would put it in a drawer. So not only did I have to open the drawer, but I had to open that bag that had a note on it to me. Wow. Like it is my phone's bedtime or something. I can't remember.

SPEAKER_00 31:18

You put your phone to bed.

SPEAKER_04 31:20

That sounds extreme, but I needed that. Anyway, what were your other practical tips?

SPEAKER_00 31:23

That was good. So for me, I started putting it on the top of my refrigerator for some reason. When I walk in the house, just put it on top of my refrigerator. I couldn't reach them. Um I know that's for the shorter of Brittany would have to take it. Also, Kelly said this remove the distracting apps from your phone. Moving it around on your phone, moving it to a different place, logging out, all that stuff. Like it actually doesn't work. You got to take it off. And so if it's distracting you, if you're spending eight hours a day on Candy Crush, take it off your phone.

SPEAKER_04 31:57

I'm gonna put on here digital minimalism to put in our show notes. It's not a Christian book, but it is very, very helpful.

SPEAKER_00 32:06

Hopefully, some of this amusing ourselves to death is also not a Christian book, but those are two just really good on this stuff.

TV To TikTok: Old Warnings, New World

SPEAKER_04 32:14

Yeah. There is a Christian book for women, Social Sanity in an Insta World. That is a really good book. But we have to get going today because we're a little over time. So I just want to say we will be back again in your podcast form next Monday. So you can listen back then. We look forward to chatting with y'all. Thank you guys for listening. Uh, we encourage you to look at the show notes for the resources that we're gonna drop and for a fun new thing down there. Okay. Thanks, guys. Bye.