Media addicted and spiritually desensitized?

Today while driving I happened upon a sermon being given about Media addiction and becoming spiritually desensitized. He challenged everyone to do a media fast and find out how addicted to media you are, or how spiritually desensitized you have become.
While this may sound easy, it may well be the hardest thing you do.


1. Take upon yourself to have a media fast for 1-10 days
This means totally unplugged from the media.  Turn off that phone, turn off the television, the radio in the car etc. It all has to go.  

Do this for at least one day, but up to ten if you can handle it.
Some will start to get jittery after an hour, going to check the phone. You may begin itching for that feeling of connection, stirring to hear the background sounds of all the media noise that is always around. If it is hard to go even an hour, you know that you are addicted.

2. After a period of media fasting turn on prime-time television and watch for an hour.

You may be shocked at what you find.

I have taken time to fast from the media several times over the last few years. I even wrote about it nearly 3 years ago on my other blog encouraging people to take time out to unplug.  It is nice to get away from the media for a bit. It is nice to take a breather, but I did not go on to step 2. I did not stop to look at these questions: How does all the media affect us? Do we really get desensitized by it?
  
 Recently I had an experience that put it all into perspective. I was watching the television and I started noticing that on this particular show people were being brutalized and shot right in front of my face and I was watching realized that I was not having much of a reaction to it. It was just "normal" All of a sudden a passage of scripture from the Book of Mormon ran through my mind from Mormon 2:18......  "a continual scene of  wickedness and abominations has been before my eyes" It awoke me to the state that I was in. 

I also at this time had an experience where I had picked a TV series for my husband and I to watch. We began the series and after a few episodes I noticed that there were things happening in the show that I knew were not good, yet I watched on because I was addicted to the series. A few more episodes and I found myself watching the women on this show-- women who were living a life far different from my own and found myself thinking "Is that what men want a woman to be like? Maybe I should...."  All of a sudden; I awoke to my thoughts and said "Whoa! hold on a minute, Did I really just think that?"  I was shocked and in disbelief that I had those thoughts. I told my husband that we could not watch that show anymore because it was affecting my thoughts and the way I related to the world.  He agreed, yet he was like me--addicted!  

A few more episodes and we finally decided to put the series away for good. It was poisoning us.  I began to be more aware of what the family was being exposed to. I was finding it hard to be a good Christian/Proverbs 31 woman when other ideas and ways to behave were being presented before me. It was all becoming too appealing. I was starting to want to please the world as opposed to God. It was a startling realization for me to realize that I had convinced myself that "it isn't all that bad, there are worse things that we could be watching" but drop by drop it was adding up, the attitudes of what we were exposing ourselves to was creeping in my attitude and thoughts were changing. I was accepting things that 5 years ago I would have never even have imagined.  It was time for a real change. 

Now, We unplug a whole lot more. We are finding more time dedicated to learning the ways of the Lord and reading the scriptures. We are finding ourselves telling  and retelling the stories of courage and hope from them. We are very aware of the media and are limiting its influence. We still watch more TV than needed, but I am putting a plan in place to limit the amount of media this summer while the children are out of school.  It is a battle worth fighting.  Being aware is the first step to lasting change. I am glad I became aware and have been able to begin a new chapter in our lives.  Now it is your turn. Try the challenge, see what happens in your life.

Blessings to you,

Happy Momma 



  

Stand tall through it all

It is a time to stand tall and strong against the evils that surround us. I wrote a post two years ago entitled Drowning in a gray world.   It is even more important today than it was two years ago.  I am afraid that too many of my Christian sisters are being lulled into the things of this world. Too many have not firmly set their sights upon the things of God and kept themselves there.  Many of us have been so beaten down we have given up and forgotten the fight. Many of our homes are in danger of becoming a "spiritual slum" a place where God cannot dwell. Most often it begins with the entertainment that we allow into our lives and our homes. Far too many of our sisters an brothers are beginning to frequent the "slums" of the world through the media that comes into the home in the form of internet, television and books we are reading. For many of us our attitudes are changing with the world. Sinful attitudes and disrespect for our God and his laws is becoming commonplace in many homes which have typically been the last frontier of goodness.

What can you and I do?  First, be aware of what is coming into your home. Take a good and honest look at what is coming into your home. Take a close look at the things you entertain yourself with. It may be surprising. As we began to call out sin on the television we were surprised at how much had crept in and how our attitudes had changes us and we were seemingly unaware of how far it had really gone.  Dr. Phil has often said "You can't change what you don't acknowledge." So my advice, see where attitudes are changing and create your home as a stronghold of the Gospel of Christ once again. Second, Make changes and institute new rules if needed.  Let those around you know that you stand in Christ. Let your actions show that you are living by God's laws. Tell your children what is acceptable and what is not. Let them know that God's laws are your laws. Teach them to love the Lord and obey his word while doing the same in your own life. Third, create a pocket of goodness around you.  Keep your home as a good and safe place in this world. Seek out the goodness in your neighborhood, invite others to join you. Find those who want to join with you and gather together do good and stand up for the right. Together we can stand firm where alone, we can get swept away.  It is the only way for us to "overcome" the world. 



Ezra Taft Benson put it so well......

"God takes the slums out of people who then take themselves out of the slums
The Lord works from the inside out. The world works from the outside in. The world would take people out of the slums. Christ takes the slums out of people, and then they take themselves out of the slums. The world would mold men by changing their environment. Christ changes men, who then change their environment. The world would shape human behavior, but Christ can change human nature.”

We can overcome the world. We can take ourselves out of the slums of sin. It is possible through Jesus Christ.


P.S. I am working on a post about those who overcome through Christ. There is so much that is promised to those who would live and abide in his law, and those who overcome the things of this world.  It is such exciting stuff. The promised blessings and the hope that comes through a belief in Christ makes is much easier to stand strong.  Be on the lookout for that post in the near future. 

First responses are not always the best response

 

Life is not always about what happens to us, but how we respond to the situations around us. Sometimes it begins with making a different choice other than what our "first response" would dictate.
I recently read an article from hands free momma's blog which helped me to remember that I am not alone it all this.

http://www.handsfreemama.com/2014/05/09/today-i-lived-and-you-did-too/#more-5603

Here are a few thoughts that come out of my book "Goodbye surviving, Hello thriving"  I hope to have it available early fall.  

 

Life has been a journey. It has taken me to places that I never imagined. But I have had to learn new skills and habits along the way. I also have had to break some of those habits that have not served me well. I have had to learn  some "new responses" to situations.

"I remember one Sunday morning when my young daughter who was about four years old came into the bathroom while I was getting ready for church. She told me. "Mom you and I, we look so beautiful in our dresses; let's dance! " The old, worried, stressed out me would have pushed that aside and say, "Not now honey, I don't have the time we are going to be late."  I was learning the power of those little moments. I swept up my daughter and took ten or fifteen seconds out of my life to whisk her about the bathroom in a magical dance. In those few seconds we were both swept up into a fantasy land,  a magical moment that could have easily been lost. The dance only lasted a few moments, but the feelings lasted most of the day, and the memory will last a lifetime."   

 

 

Adaption and learning new strategies and habits

We become what we repeatedly do. Steven covey (7 habits of highly effective teens)

"Sometimes, I get the feeling that we're just a bunch of habits. The gestures we repeat over and over, they're just our need to be recognized. Without them, we'd be unidentifiable. We have to reinvent ourselves every minute.” Nicole Krauss

"It has been said that we are nothing more than our behaviors repeated throughout  our entire life. We are made up of daily life choices. We are also talking of daily habits, especially the ones that seem like they are not a choice anymore because they come so easily, and we do not consciously realize that we are making a choice because it is just habit. Some daily habits serve us well, but far too many of us have habits and strategies for getting us through life that really do not serve us well. We all have a habit of insisting on keeping up these broken strategies that really do not work. Why?  Because they are habits, and habits have a history of being too hard to break. Let me share with you an example from my own life.  

I had found myself in a bad habit of yelling at my children. The trouble  was that the children were beginning to model that same behavior. I found myself hating the fact that they were yelling at one another. We were getting to be a very loud family. I found myself wondering what it was going to be like once they all reached the teenage years. The thought of three very loud, yelling teenagers was frightening. We found ourselves yelling at each other to a point that everyone was yelling and nobody was  listening to anybody. Everyone was getting louder and louder to be heard over the other yellers.  It was out of control. I could only see it getting worse and worse, with no end in sight

It was my middle child who was the catalyst for change. She began holding her hands over her ears for large parts of the day. She is very sensitive to words, and yelling was over the top for her. She couldn't stand it anymore. I would notice her in the midst of the yelling with her hands over her ears.  Then I noticed that she would just tune out anything and everything going on in the house for large parts of the day. She was not happy in life.  She was spending way too much time with her hands over her ears or just plain tuned out to life. I knew it was not healthy for a 5 year old to be like this, I just didn't know what to do about it.  

One day I came to this daughter to give her a compliment on something that she had done well, and out of habit her hands went over her ears and her eyes closed. I was not angry at all, and I was not yelling, but she had gotten into the habit, she was ready for me to start yelling because most of the time it was that way.  I stood there in shock. What had we come too?  I felt like a monster, my child was hiding from me, and all I wanted to do was to tell her that I loved her and that she had done a good job.  My heart was about to break. I slowly took her hands off her ears, I whispered to her, "please open your eyes, I want to talk to you."  She shook her head  to tell me no.  I began to feel angry at her response toward me, but more angry with myself. The feelings I had were so strong, but the sadness coming from her was even stronger. I shut my mouth and waited.  She finally opened her eyes, but wouldn't look at me. When I finally  reached under her chin and held her head up, she looked at me with such sadness in her huge blue eyes, I was pierced to the soul.  "Why did you cover your ears when you saw me coming?" I asked,--- " I thought you were going to yell at me like you always do." was her reply, "I do not like the yelling and everyone keeps on yelling all the time, it never stops."  Oh my heart ached, I vowed that moment that we were going to change that habit.

How? What needed to happen for us to change? I called a family meeting right away. I announced that there was a new family rule. No yelling. I was going to start and set the example. We had to break this habit and replace it with another. "Yelling is not communicating" became our key phrase. The other was, "We do not communicate by yelling".  When we found ourselves yelling the new habit was this.... We were to stop, take a deep breath, and repeat one of those two phrases before continuing on with what we wanted to say in a nice, calm voice.

It was hard work. I would get about three words into my yelling rant and then have to stop, take a deep breath, repeat the phrase, then speak softly and kindly. It seemed like I was repeating these phrases five thousand times a day. It was exhausting at times.  About the third day, I was ready to give in, I had tried, but it was such hard work. I felt like it was constantly on my mind and a constant battle I didn't know I would ever win. I felt like I didn't have time to stop, and repeat the phrase so many times a day, but my little blue eyed girl caught my attention again. I noticed that she was not spending so much of her time tuned out to life with her hands over her ears. I also noticed that the sparkle was coming back to her eyes. She was doing better, and we were beginning to see results in the rest of us too. So we continued on the journey.

It was nearly six months into the journey when I realized that I had made it until noon without having to repeat the words; "yelling is not how we communicate".  I was overjoyed. We had come so far. It was no longer a constant, conscious, nearly overwhelming effort.  It was becoming a new habit not to yell. It made those long days in the beginning worth it. "

 

My hope and prayer is that we will find a desire to be better, to do better, to be a little slower in responding becoming aware that there may be something better than that "first initial response".   

 

 

   

 

 

 

 

What do you seek?

We believe in being honest, true, chaste, benevolent, virtuous, and in doing good to all men; indeed, we may say that we follow the admonition of Paul- We believe all things, we hope all things, we have endured many things, and hope to be able to endure all things. If there is anything virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy, we seek after these things. (Article of faith #13 The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints)


Part of this comes from Philippians 4:8-9
8. Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things.
9.  The things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.

How I love these words of inspiration.  Practice being good and God will be with you. What a great promise given to us.

Seek after the good things. There are so many good things out there, yet often they are overshadowed by the "Other things" The biggest challenge is keeping our eye on the main goal. One of the Devils greatest tools is distraction. He gets us to forget what it is that we really desire.

 

 

 

How can we keep from being distracted and caught in the Devils trap?  We can seek after the "good things" in life. By seeking out good music, books, friends, and so on we are surrounding ourselves with constant reminders of what we are striving for, constant reminders that we are choosing the things of the Kingdom of God thus keeping the Devil from permanently distracting us.   

 

Choose to surround yourself with goodness. Choose righteousness. Choose God.  Teach your children the same. 

 

God bless you all on your journey,

 

Happy Momma   

 

Being torn between popular culture and your faith

We are living in a time that was forseen by many of the prophets. I believe that we are at the doorstep of those things which John saw in the book of revelations. Isaiah prophesied of this time also. It is a time when evil has been poured out among all the earth. The Devil is gathering his army and preparing to give battle to the saints. It is a time when those of faith will be tested to their limits.

One thing that is happening is that many faithful are being torn between keeping themselves faithful in standing for all things good; and loving and caring for those closest to them who may be choosing the popular things of the world. Pornography, immorality, and vulgarity, is the way of life for many around us. With the rising numbers of people engaging in pornography and practicing same sex relationships, it is becoming increasingly harder to stand for the truth. Our young people are growing up in a society that is so accepting of sin (especially sexual sin). It is starting to be normal and natural for young people to engage in these sexual sins with no knowledge of it's true identity as sin.

We are becoming a  place like unto Sodom and Gomorrah in the bible (see the book of Genesis) two cities that were destroyed by God because they were so abounding in sexual sin. I would suppose that the children growing up in those cities were also lulled away by the Devil into thinking that sexual sins and perversions were of no consequence and a normal part of life. God very much warned in clear language to the Israelites in Leviticus chapter 18.  In verses 22-24 it says Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is an abomination. Neither shalt thou lie with any beast to defile thyself therewith: neither shall nay woman stand before a beast to lie down thereto: it is confusion. Defile not ye yourselves in any of these things...


It is a hard thing for those who would walk in the spirit of Christ to see so many around them accept and normalize sexual sin. I myself have wrestled with the fact that some of my friends and family who should "know better" being lulled by Satan into thinking that these things are ok for them and their families.  In Galations 5:16-17 it talks about the wrestle between the spirit and the lusts of the flesh and how they cannot co-exist. This I say then, walk in the spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary one to the other: so that you cannot do the things that you would.  
  

I read a wonderful article about protecting our children from the evils of pornography. It talked about some things you can do to protect and teach your children. The one action point that caught my attention: call out pornography when you see it. At first I thought, "why would I call attention to that very thing that I want them to avoid, won't that make them more curious and make them want to go to it?" Then my eyes were opened up to it.  They cannot fight something they do not see or know (an imaginary enemy). By calling out immodesty and pornography that we see on the TV or billboards, we are making them aware that THIS IS SIN. They will begin to recognize it as sin for themselves. It is very empowering practice and habit. My children now understand what I am talking about. They recognize sin when they see it. We have started calling out all kinds of sin we see on television. It is amazing. We are severely limiting our exposure to TV because of it.

Watch TV for a moment and begin to call out all the sin you see.  Lying, deceiving, backbiting, disrespectful behaviors, murder, stealing, and the list goes on. About 10 minutes of TV and you won't know what is going on in the show because you are stopping every 20 seconds to call out a sin you see. Things have changed TV today is very different then the time when episodes of Lassie or Andy Griffith show were the main things we watched, where society itself upheld Christian values and taught it to the children. Of course society is very different now, TV and our culture in general teaches the ways of Satan, but God's laws still stand and SIN WILL ALWAYS BE SIN. We have to be aware and teach our children that so many of the things around us that are accepted by others are sin and are not acceptable to us or our God. 

I leave you with the words from 1 Peter chapter 5 verse 8  Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour.

We must be the ones to teach our children the dangers of the lion when the world would teach them that it is just a harmless playful kitty cat. If this means that you have to stand alone and go against society, so be it. It will all be worth it in the end when you will hear those blessed words "well done thou good and faithful servant!"







P.S. I have included links to two of the most interesting books that I have read lately that have opened my eyes to the severity of the situation. They both have increased my faith, and my resolve to do good. They have deepened my desire to serve God and help others to be strengthened in their own faith.
They are well worth the time to read and study.



The Cleansing of America

Outwitting the Devil: The Secret to Freedom and Success


The above links are affiliate links.  You can read the full disclosure by clicking the "privacy policy" at the top right hand corner of my blog.

 

When life gets tough

Today I choose........

 

We do not choose what happens to us, but we get to choose how we react to those things that happen around us.

Today, right now, I am making a choice.......

I choose to feel JOY instead of pain and sadness.

 

I choose FAITH to dispel any fear that I may encounter

 

I choose to feel HOPE when it is easy to feel despair

 

I choose HEALING  because I can't endure any more hurt.

 

I choose to be CERTAIN instead of doubtful

 

I choose to stand STABLE even on rocky ground

 

I choose to be GRATEFUL for it fills my soul with goodness and drowns out self pity.

 

I choose LOVE

 

I choose LIFE

 

I CHOOSE CHRIST