What we Learned in February
4:45 PM
Late January, our family realized we had gotten into some
bad habits. We were quoting movie lines constantly, and scripture almost never.
We realized that in the evenings we had exchanged conversation and books for
movies and TV shows. It was easy to justify it, we were working hard, we were
tired, and we were watching clean movies, sometimes even Christian ones. We
also realized that our speech had become sarcastic, harsh, and often mean under
the guise of being playful (you think those movies had something to do with
it?). So we decided to do something about it.
After some talk, we decided to take the month of February
off of all movies. Some of my siblings took it a step further, my sister Rose
took a month off of all secular music. Some of my siblings chose not to play
computer games during the month either. On the third of March (because we had
been busy on the first two days). We sat down to watch our first movie in a
while but before, we had a discussion about what we had learned.
While I was awed and pleased by what my siblings had
learned, I was even more shocked when I really took stock of what I had
learned. Like the fact that I had missed spending quiet evenings reading, and
that being without TV had made me crave non-fiction more than fiction. I also
realized how much time I had been wasting.
I know this will shock you (not) but I also realized that
much of my unkind, sarcastic, and otherwise ungodly speech was being fed by
what I was watching. I had become more worried about being witty and clever in
my speech then being kind and wholesome.
Yes, we decided to keep the TV, however it hasn’t been on
much this month. However, we all came out changed from our experiment. We now
have a way to kindly chastise each other when we quote a movie line, and it is
working to make us think more about what we say. Most evenings can find us on
our family couch reading, the TV shut from view. I know that I still have a long way to go, but
I am learning.
Have you ever gone a month without watching movies?
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2 comments
That's a really great experiment! I have definitely taken a month off of movies before, but only because we don't watch TV very much. :P
ReplyDeleteWow! What a wonderful idea! Thanks so much for sharing! We actually don't have TV, but we did go one month without watching movies, and I also left off music for that month. It really made me evaluate what I was listening to. It's so easy to get lax, and when you come back to your music after the month is up, you suddenly listen to it with new ears! :-)
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