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Jun 21, 2022 18:00pm

Faith TALK: Drawing Lines With Our Devices

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(The following is a family devotional guide with suggested questions and scriptures.)

T-Talk About It Topic

What are some rules that are hard to follow? Why do you think we have rules? Is there anything good about having rules? What if we had no rules?

Rules establish boundaries and boundaries are areas that keep us safe and protected. Imagine that you have a fenced-in backyard for your dog. Inside the fence, your dog is safe and protected. However, if he digs a hole under the fence and runs off, he is unprotected against cars, animals, or other people. He may get hurt, attacked, or lost. He may even go hungry because he has wandered away from home. Many things can go wrong when your dog chooses to escape the comfort of his backyard.

The same thing can happen to us. Outside our boundaries, we are not protected. Outside our boundaries, there is consequence and punishment. Outside our boundaries, we can get hurt.

As much as we don’t like rules, they do keep us safe.

A-Anchor To The Bible

In the Old Testament, God gave rules to His people called the 10 Commandments. He made these rules to give them boundaries to their behavior and to keep them safe. Do you remember the 10 Commandments? (For a quick review, turn to Exodus 20:1-17.) How do you think God’s people, called the Israelites, did with keeping these rules? Their behavior was probably a lot like ours today—we break them. Sometimes, we do it unintentionally; sometimes, we do it intentionally. And usually, there are consequences. When Jesus came in the New Testament, he gave the most important commandment of all: Read Mark 12:29-30 to see what it is. You see, when we love Jesus with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, we will want to follow His rules. Of course, we will mess up many times, but there will be a want to stay within the boundaries He gives us. Our love will be shown in how well we stay within His boundaries. One area I want set some boundaries in our family is through our electronic devices. Though Jesus didn’t say anything specifically about our devices, he did talk about boundaries for His people’s behavior. Our family is going to set some boundaries with our devices, not to be mean, but because boundaries will keep you safe and protected.

Mama, I have 3 questions for you:

What is acceptable behavior for your people on their devices? Think of what they do on their devices—Social Media? Games? Texting?YouTube? How would you like them to use these apps/sites?

What are your expectations with the amount of time your people spend on their devices? Be specific—how much time a day/night is acceptable?

What do you consider unacceptable behavior on devices? What do you consider to be wrong behavior?

See how your standard matches up to God’s Standard (The 10 Commandments).

Now, draw the Line. This means, mama, you take your expectations and God’s Standard and write out your boundary line(s) for this area. In other words, this is the rule.

L-Learn God’s Word

This week, our family is memorizing James 4:17 (ERV): “If you fail to do what you know is right, you are sinning.” You now know the boundary lines for your electronic devices: what is right and what is wrong. This verse is talking about choosing wrong. It is about crossing boundary lines I have set using God’s Word. This is called sin. Sin has consequences. C.S. Lewis has a quote that says, “Integrity is doing the right thing even when no one is watching.” That is what I am asking for—integrity. Have integrity with everything you do on your device: What you look at, how much time you spend on it, what you say, integrity is the most valuable thing you could ever own and the toughest to ever regain. Treat it carefully and with respect.

K-Keep Each Other Accountable

This is the most valuable step of any Faith TALK! It’s focused on keeping everyone accountable with their behavior in this week’s Faith TALK, as well as the memory verse. Here are a few ideas to keep everyone’s device behavior in check:

Monitor the amount of time spent on devices—set a time limit.

Encourage your kiddos to take brain breaks and get outside.

Get accountability software that helps you better monitor your family’s devices

Require your kiddos’ usernames and passwords for Social Media and monitor from time to time (or every day if there is a loss of trust).

Write the memory verse on a chalkboard and display it by the door. Have them say the verse each morning and initial they did so.

Always check up on what your kiddos are doing on their devices. Praise them for the good, talk with them about the suspicious, and be willing to punish the wrong. We are training them, mamas, with behavior they continue as adults. Stay the course and be consistent!