Exactly one week ago when I decided I was going to write, I
went to bed with thoughts flying through my head. I mean, my head was just
swimming with random thoughts. Now most nights I do go to bed with things on my
mind, but I tune them out. Do you know how I do that? I pick up my phone and
start by opening up Facebook to see what everyone else is doing. If that is
boring enough, I will go to sleep. If not, I will move on to Instagram. Then
sometimes Pinterest. Then I will look for a game to play until I am propping my
eyes open with toothpicks.
As I was scrolling through my Facebook feed, I heard a very
loud thought. It said,
“Alicia, STOP! It is
okay to just fall asleep. You don’t have to be doing something. God created you
to rest. It is okay to rest. That includes resting your mind.”
At that point, I laid my phone down and started praying.
Then I heard another loud thought telling me that I needed to focus on getting
rid of my distractions and that was going to be my writing venture.
So right then and there I committed to God that I would do
this. My intent was to start first thing in the morning. I was going to log my
phone usage. My beloved iphone is a huge distraction for me. Here is the funny thing. At one point in my life, I was anti smart
phone. I was anti texting. I was anti most small electronics. In fact, if you
tried to contact me, prior to my iphone, I probably didn’t have a clue where my
phone was. We got our first smart phones in fall of 2009. We got blackberries.
I didn’t really use mine as it was intended. It was a fancy way to text and I
actually started texting a little bit more. I used my blackberry for texting,
phone calls, Facebook and emailing. It still wasn’t a really big distraction.
Fast forward to Valentines 2011. We upgraded to our iphones. I think Chris and
I ignored each other for at least a week while we perfected the apps on our
phones, played games, and put our lives on our iphones. We actually joke about
it. Thankfully we got them at the same time.
Now I don’t think iphones are inherently bad. They are
actually pretty nifty little things. I take way more pictures of my children
because of it. I mean it is always right there by my side and they are always being cute. I rarely forget an appointment now because we
have synced all of our information into our lovely color coded calendar –
complete with reminders. And let’s be honest - it is nice to have google at
your fingertips, especially with Harrison Holbrook as your child. That child is
always asking questions that I don’t know how to answer. It does indeed have
many good functions. But if I can’t go to sleep at night because I’m aimlessly
playing on my phone when I should be trying to fall asleep, we’ve got a
problem. A big problem.
Friends, I don’t want my children to have memories of a
mother looking at her phone all day long. I don’t want my husband to feel like
my phone is more important than what he has to tell me. I don’t want my friends
to feel like all of my texts and phone notifications are more important than
the time I’m spending with them. I don’t
want my phone replacing real face-to-face memories with the people whom I love
the most.
I’ve been trying to keep track of my phone usage over the
past week. I’ve also tried to make a point to not use it during meal times and
to be more present when I’m spending time with my family.
I will leave you with some questions.
1. How much time do
you spend using your phone each day? (I’m sure there is an app for it –haha!)
2. How much of that
time that you spend on your phone could you be doing something more fulfilling?
3. How much time do you spend on your phone when you
could/should be resting?
Here are some challenges.
1.
Put your phone down at all meal times, even if
you are alone.
2.
When you feel tempted to pick up your phone for
idle down time, do something else instead.
(play with your child, pet your
dog, knit, crochet, read, journal, sit outside, exercise, etc)
3.
Block out a certain time of your day to respond
to emails or to play on your phone. If you are not in that window of time,
don’t grab it.
4.
Don’t take your phone to bed with you. (I
actually use mine as an alarm, so I will be putting my on my nightstand.)
5.
Utilize the “Do Not Disturb” feature on your
iphone. It can be found under settings.
6.
Turn off notifications that are not imperative.
(Games, social media, etc).
7.
Put your phone away when you are visiting with another
person. Give them your full attention.
Peace out, friends. May you have a day full of life and memories.
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