Thursday Thoughts For Parents: 03/15/07
March 15, 2007 12:03 pmParents,
Ever wonder what effect the iPod, video games, text messaging, and computer time is having on your son or daughter’s soul? Dr. Al Mohler can help you figure out. A week ago, Dr. Mohler posted on “Media Snacking,” explaining the implications of attention deficit in the digital age:
Several factors have been blamed for the shortened attention spans. Many blame television for the problem, noting that the pace of television programming and the structure of eight-minute segments between commercials trains the mind to expect shorter attention demands.
But, if television shortened the national attention span starting decades ago, the Internet and its massive media expansion seems to be producing an even shorter attention span.
All this may be great for the marketers, but it spells further challenge for educators, parents, and preachers. How will people be able to listen to a serious biblical sermon if their minds are set to pay attention only for a few minutes — or even less?
Parents, how are you combating this tendency towards the brief and trivial in favor of the sustained and substantive? Do your kids read? Do they engage in extended, thoughtful conversation? Biblical truth doesn’t translate easily into bite-size segments. Let’s train our kids to love learning and to be content with the absence of images (reading). This is especially important since the truth of the gospel can’t be communicated visually: it takes words (and lots of them) to clearly and precisely communicate the blazing holiness of God, the radical depravity of sin, and God’s reconciling initiative towards sinful humanity in and through Jesus Christ.
A proposed reading list? I recommend starting with the Bible. Are you kids familiar with the basic storyline? The various genres? Individual books? If you need help with this, check out Mark Dever’s books; Promises Made: The Message of the Old Testament and Promises Kept: The Message of the New Testament. If I can help you develop a reading list beyond the Bible, I would love to.
Categories: Thursday Thoughts For Parents, five15 blog
One Response to “Thursday Thoughts For Parents: 03/15/07”
Steve,
Thank you for this TTFP and your caring for us. I know the fast pace of life and other worldy things as well as being on the computer can be distracting for me as a parent as well. John and I are attempting to help our sons see that lots of computer or other media time is not good in the long run. (The Holy Spirit convicted one of our sons that it was not wise to be playing computer games so much last summer.) By God’s grace we try to talk with the boys and have discipleship with each one of them on a rotating basis on Monday night. We encourage them to read Gospel-centered books. We are far from perfect.
Daily I need to slow down enough to meditate on the word of God and take time to read books with eternal significance. Many things of the world can lure me. It has been a blessing as I have been reading some of the excellent books available. Lost in the Middle and Don’t Waste Your Life are impacting me. And by God’s grace, I pray, John and I can continue to try to set a godly example for the boys.
Just a thought. I noticed that the March madness blog got the most comments. It takes time for me to think about some of the articles as they are of important and eternal significance. It takes time and thought to sit here and ponder theml. I wonder if that is hard for other busy parents.
Thanks again for your concern for our souls.
Care to comment?