Can I Use My Phone On The Sabbath

Gratitude Mean solar day 573

Matthew 13:22 – (Jesus said) "The seed sown amid weeds represents the person who receives the message, but all of life's busy distractions, his divided centre, and his ambition for wealth result in suffocating the kingdom bulletin and prevent him from bearing spiritual fruit.

Until this very 24-hour interval, Hubby Rick owns a flip phone. And he is enormously proud of information technology.

He doesn't want a smart phone. (He says if he needs i, he has a wife with ane!) In fact, he goes out of his mode to maintain a flip phone.

While on vacation a few years ago, Rick's trusty flip phone died. Truth exist known, it was MY sometime flip phone that he resorted to after his like phone had died. Nosotros went to the cell telephone company the day later on we returned home from holiday to supercede his phone. When the salesperson asked how he could assist us, Rick whipped his/my old cell phone out of his pocket and said he wanted a phone just similar "this one."

The sales rep was not dismayed. He could go Rick set up with a new smart phone for a penny! Ane penny! Information technology wasn't a top-of-the-line smart telephone, simply he could do so much more with this smart phone. Rick repeated his line about not needing a smart phone considering his wife has one. He remained steadfast in his desire for a flip phone.

It took a little awhile and quite a bit of digging. But eventually, a flip phone was found in the store. It would cost virtually $100. Did Rick nevertheless desire the flip telephone? Why not try the penny smart phone?

Rick walked out with the flip telephone. And still has it three years afterward.

Cell phones are quite amazing. There is way more than engineering in my smart phone than there was in Apollo 11, the first U.S. spaceship that landed on the moon with a person. Cell phones pack a lot of dial these days. I can communicate with most anyone in a few seconds. I can look up some random answer to a question that Hubby Rick poses me. I can find out what time someplace opens and closes besides how long it will take for me to get in that location. The list goes on and on and on.

While we may recollect they salve us time, here'southward what often happens: I pick up my cell phone to Quickly wait up something. Twenty minutes later? I'thousand still spending/wasting time on it.

Perchance I'm the only 1 that this happens to.

Around the first of the year, I moved some things around on my phone. I moved some apps off of the abode screen, so they weren't as assessable. Now, I take to swipe through a few screens to go there. I also removed some apps that I felt were sucking upwardly likewise much of my fourth dimension.

Try equally I might, likewise ofttimes, I begin most days on my telephone before almost everything else. I really don't want this to happen, but too often it does. And soon, 20 or 30 minutes have gone past, minutes I can't recoup. And for what?

For Christians, Sunday is a day of Sabbath. It'southward a day for us to slow down. Exhale. Get off of our regular rhythm and recharge our souls. If at that place has been one argent lining about the pandemic, I believe nosotros have more than opportunities to reclaim some Sabbath on Lord's day considering in that location aren't equally many other options.

Nevertheless, our phones tin suck the Sabbath right out of us.

Here's my Lenten challenge for you today. Take your phone. Figuratively, lock it up for a pre-determined amount of time. Live your life without it for a while. You choose how long. I suggest a minimum of an hour. If you really want to take this claiming on? Make information technology several hours.

I know. We think we volition miss something important. For most requests, we tin can but get back to the person after nosotros've completed our non-phone Sabbath. Facebook and Instagram and east-mail volition however exist in that location. Aye, even text letters practise not take to be immediately answered. If someone Really needs to get ahold of you, they volition observe a mode.

Or information technology can wait.

I notice myself way too tied to my phone. I allow myself letting the telephone dictate too much of my 24-hour interval. If I want something different, I'm the 1 that has to choose to put my telephone in time-out and take a suspension.

In that location are so many times when nosotros observe people together … and everyone is on their phone, rather than having conversations and interactions with each other. Yes, I'm guilty as well. When I've requested that people put their phones away for a period of time, information technology's not always been welcomed. The backlash has been real.

Cell phones are like every other item we own. They tin be great, helpful and a time-saver. They can likewise be a challenge, draw us abroad from what's really near important and keep usa buried in things that may or may not be helpful.

I've spent a fair bit of time with families after the loss of a loved one. And with people who know their earthly lives are coming to an end. Never once has someone said to me, "Gosh, I wished that I had spent more fourth dimension on my cell phone."

Nope. What people wish is they would take had more than meaningful conversations with their loved one. Taken time for seemingly unimportant events just in the presence of the people they love the most. No one has always told me that they wished their loved i had made more than coin, owned a bigger house or had a fancier cell telephone. Never one time.

I encourage y'all to bring together with me on this Sabbath day, set our jail cell phones aside (smart or flip) for a period of time and enjoy the twenty-four hours. Fill it with things that are deeply of import and meaningful. Everything else will even so exist there after your phone's timeout. Mayhap your mean solar day volition feel a bit saner as well.

For the promise of a day of meaningful Sabbath, I am grateful.

Blessings –

Dianne

Love God – Please forgive me for the many, many times I have called to spend time on my phone rather than being in Your presence. Forgive me for the countless excuses I have fabricated about non having enough time for Y'all … merely find plenty of time to be on social media. May I cull to spend some Sabbath fourth dimension with You today, undeterred by a clamoring phone. Amen.

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