The Media Fast Challenge

In a recent blog post, I began by stating that there just aren't enough hours in a day.  I have had this feeling a lot recently - an increasing amount, actually.  There’s just not enough time to do everything that needs to be done, and everything I want to do, all in one day.  Or week.  Or lifetime, perhaps. Well, tonight I think I found the solution. 

I went to an information session at church about media use and addiction.  I wasn't sure I wanted to go, but let’s face it – I needed to get out of the house.  The main topics covered were: 1) Sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ through media; 2) Internet Safety; and 3) Technology Addiction, including, but not limited to, pornography.  This is some of what I took away from it, and what eventually led me to my epiphany (or inspiration, if you will):

• Technology can be used for such good, but the adversary also uses it to distract us from good things we could be doing, and to bring us down to eventual destruction. 
• We need to keep our use of technology in check, by asking ourselves 1) does this invite or impede the Holy Ghost in my life? 2) Does it enlarge or restrain my capacity to love, lift, and serve others  
• This quote:
• “If the adversary cannot entice us to misuse our physical bodies, then one of his most potent tactics is to beguile you and me as embodied spirits to disconnect gradually and physically from things as they really are… And, if we let him, he can cunningly employ some aspects of modern technology to accomplish his purposes.  Please be careful of becoming so immersed and engrossed in pixels, texting, earbuds, twittering, online social networking, and potentially addictive uses of media and the internet that you fail to recognize the importance of your physical body and miss the richness of person-to-person communication.” –David A. Bednar

Lastly, one girl spoke about a particularly trying time in her life.  She was inspired to cut out technology from her life for a week - a "media fast", as she called it - including television, texting, facebook, non-essential emailing, etc.  She said that cutting out all of the noise allowed her to follow our Heavenly Father’s invitation to, “Be still, and know that I am God”. 

In my case, I am not going through a particularly hard time; in fact, life has never been quite so good!  But at the end of the evening, I had a strong feeling that if I will cut out all those non-essentials (i.e., all-too-frequent facebook checking, email reading, t.v. watching, etc) even just for a week, I will be a more patient and loving mother.  I will be more present with my little girls.  I will be more focused on things that really matter. My priorities will become clearer in my mind.  I will have a greater portion of the Spirit of the Lord with me.  And of course, having cleared all the extra clutter out of my day, I will have time to do the things that need to be done, as well as the worthwhile things I want to do.  There is my solution, now it’s time to put it to the test.  Feel free to join in!  I'll let you know how it goes.