Guilty Pleasures and True Confessions

******WARNING!******WARNING!*********WARNING!********

PLEASE do not read this if you are going to comment something like, "well, I can't understand why you ever did these things to begin with" or "I've never done anything like that" or anything of the like.  If you can't stop yourself from making a judgmental comment, I'd rather you not read this.


I didn't say anything about it on Facebook at the beginning of Lent, but in addition to taking on three orphans in my prayer life, I gave up something hard for me.  I gave up Facebook games.  I had gotten into playing them when I was working at the GA office at Walsh, and had actually downloaded them on my phone.  I would play Candy Crush when I had minutes of down time - minutes I could have been doing something more productive, but nevertheless, I did it.  So, for Lent, I gave them up - and I had been playing 3 at the time.  I found myself doing more fun things and I read 5 books.  I wasn't as attached to my phone.  On Easter Sunday, I deleted them from my phone and from my Facebook account.  I don't plan on returning to them at all.

While on my run this morning, I decided to take it a step further.  I still spent Lent looking at my phone during the day, checking email and Facebook, texting friends, checking the weather or sports, etc.  Often Kate would be playing with something, and Megan would be sleeping, and I didn't see the harm.  My morning run epiphany changed my view.  I've decided that while Kate is awake, I'm not going to be on my phone unless she's watching a movie or playing with her own handheld game.  If someone calls, I plan to answer it, but I won't answer texts or check Facebook.  It can wait until nap time, or until she watches a show.  I'm going to pray about this, as silly as that sounds, because this is a major change for me.  I am dedicating that time to doing house work, playing with my girls, and talking with my husband.  I'm going to try a 2nd Lent - another 6 weeks of commitment.  Hopefully, by then, it will be a habit.

I felt that opening up about this on my blog and sharing it with all of you would help me commit to this.  We have become a generation that's always staring into our phones, and I want to change that in my house.  Pray for me.  :)