When I was growing up, we didn’t have a phone. I was the ONLY ONE who didn’t have a phone.
By the time we got a phone, I was 13, and all in the world I wanted was a princess phone with a loooooong cord. What I got, though, was the free avocado green desk model my mom picked…since back in the day that was pretty much what picking your phone plan consisted of.
By the time I got a cell phone, and I think I was the next to the last person to get one of those, too, I could tell from the get-go that I was going to have a love-hate relationship with it.
I loved that my kids could always reach me…but I hated that it always seemed to be when I was driving down the highway and the phone was in my purse…in the floorboard…in the backseat.
Now, with smart phones, I love that when I am picking my son up from the movies that I can google what time the movie is going to be over…in the parking lot of the movies…but I hate that when he gets in the car, instead of telling me all about the movie, the first thing he does is update his facebook status.
I love that on my phone I can take pictures and videos of his band performance and upload them directly to facebook and youtube and email them to my aunt edie.
I hate, though, that sometimes I get so busy fussing with the settings and clicking this and zooming in and zooming out that I don’t really SEE the performance.
I’m there…but not really present in the moment.
I love that I can check in at the doctor’s office and Chili’s and FUMC so my friends can say OH LOOK Chris is at the doctor or OH WOW Chris is at Chilis with Karen! . . . but I hate that sometimes when we’re at those places, we’re sometimes so busy checking in that we are completely checked out.
We are out with friends, but we aren’t visiting with the friends we are with.
I love that I can be in the kitchen and google ‘what to make for dinner’ when I am just out of ideas, but I hate it that if the wireless is down at our house and the internets are broken, it is THE END OF THE WORLD.
Life is so busy now. While we are at one place, we are calling ahead to the next place. We are constantly in motion and constantly connected and never really seem to have any down time.
But here is the thing. God wants us to.
Psalm 46:10 says so. Very simply. “Be still and know I am God.”
Numbers 9:8 says “Moses said unto them, Stand Still, and I will hear what the Lord will command concerning you.”
In this technology filled life, it has become my prayer for me and my family that we remember that even though being connected is pretty FAN.TASTIC, being disconnected sometimes is pretty great too.
I personally love how you talk to me. Okay, so maybe you aren’t JUST talking to me… but sometimes (in particular, these last two posts of yours) it SEEMS like you are talking to me.
I am probably the last person on the planet to hold off on all of this. I do have a cell phone, but everyone knows that it stays off unless the car breaks down or something. I am not on facebook or twitter. I blog because I want my daughter to have a good fat piece of me when I am no longer alive. And when the phone rings and I am home alone, I never answer it unless it is my daughter or my partner. Everyone else goes to voice mail. I love knowing that I CAN have these things,though. And yes, I get incredibly disgusted when Bing plays games on her smart phone up when we are waiting for a movie to start instead of putting it away and talking to me. My daughter has a cell phone and a computer, but we don’t let her use facebook or twitter.
But,seriously…how did we survive before all this?
M, I wrote this as a little halftime devotional for our kids’ church league basketball game last weekend and opened with the question: how many of you are, at this very second, holding your mobile phone?
I think cell phones and computers and social networking has a place, but i think sometimes it has too much of a place.
I am pretty connected myself to this machine in front of me, but largely because I work on the thing all day every day and a lot of my communication with the world out there is via email and facebook.
I loathe talking on the phone really and you’ll never find me playing a game on it while I am actually in the presence of family or friends. I will, however, use it as a time passer in waiting rooms and the pick-up line at school and such.
Bravo to you for holding off the onslaught with Liv. Do so as long as possible LOL.
SO glad you put a foot out of Lurkdom for a moment!
SO glad to know that David and Moses advised being quiet every now and then.
SO glad that you’re getting your health checked on . . . although . . . don’t I know that sometimes y’look back and think, “Why didn’t I leave well enough alone!!!!!”
Signed,
June aka The Hysterectomized One-Breasted Woman