Media Advice Anyone?

Our " media fast" just ended. Not all of us were perfect at staying within the allowed screen time limits, but most were,  and those of us who sometimes messed up still did better than usual. 

Now we get to decide how much media we want to put back into our lives. 


We are all keeping this question in our minds as we fast today (the first Sunday if the month is "fast Sunday" in our church). 

It's interesting, I don't think any of us are tempted to see bad things in our media. Most of us want to use it to stay connected to others and to share good, funny, or interesting things. So why does it seem to take over our lives sometimes?

I've been thinking about time lately. Choosing how I spend my time is the most important choice I make each day and each moment. Time is all I really have to give. Everything else is connected to it. At any point in time - am I turned outward or am I inward centered?

Most media choices are self-centred, but there are some other-centered reasons. It is just really, really hard to see what our real motives are sometimes. And the difference is crucial if we want to reach our potential and become who we are meant to be. 

President Henry B. Eyring

To the degree your motives are selfish, you will find it difficult to receive those gifts of the Spirit that have been promised to you. 

Always there is the possibility that we may have a selfish purpose that is less important to the Lord. 

For instance, I may want a good grade in a course, when He prefers that I learn how to work hard in the service of others. I may want a job because of the salary or the prestige, when He wants me to work somewhere else to bless the life of someone I don’t even know yet. I may desire to entertain or impress a congregation, but I try to suppress my desire and surrender to His. 

I surely don’t understand all the meaning of the scriptural words “the pure love of Christ” (Moroni 7:47). But one meaning I do know is this: It is a gift we are promised when the Atonement of Jesus Christ has worked in us. The gift is to want what He wants. When our love is the love He feels, it is pure because He is pure. And when we feel our desire for people is moving toward being in line with His, that is one of the ways that we can know that we are being purified. When we pray for the gifts of the Spirit—and we should—one for which I pray is that I might have pure motives, to want what our Father wants for His children and for me, and to feel, as well as to say, that what I want is His will to be done."

I think that is why it is so important that we are deliberate and thoughtful about media in our home...not just because of the bad stuff that it brings into our home, but because of the way it steals our time and potential and tends to put us in a selfish mindset. 

I believe my job as a parent is to create an environment of optimal growth for the greatness already within my kids. Media can be like a weed that sucks the life-giving nourishment from our potential. Weeding our environment is super important if we want to grow. 

So what is the answer to how much/what kind of media to use in our home? I'm not sure. We will have a family council today after our fast and see what we come up with. Maybe the kids need individual goals with accountability? Maybe we need a family standard? I hope we'll come to a decision we all feel good about during our family council today. Sometimes answers come from others and their experience, so any a advise about this is welcome :-)

I read this while at the temple yesterday. I want to memorize it this week. It goes well with this post: 

"If thou shalt ask, thou shalt receive revelation upon revelation, knowledge upon knowledge, that thou mayest know the mysteries and peaceable things—that which bringeth joy, that which bringeth life eternal" -D&C 42:61