A typical day is an addiction

When we hear the word addiction, what are the first things that come to mind? Drugs? Alcohol? Cigarettes? Not to minimize those struggles, those are truly addictions, but what I am thinking of is so insidious that we do it and even incorporate it to most of our daily activities. Until about age 15, I grew up with 98% of my days being spent outside playing sports with the neighborhood kids, the other two percent was spent eating and sleeping. But that all changed when my brother walked in the house with a brand new HP.

E-mails, facebooks, blackberry's, twitter, myspace, texting, and on and on and on. These have become such normal things in our day to day life, that we see them as just that, normal things. But could there be a massive problem that we are ignoring? I mean, when is it healthy to wake up and the first thing you do before brushing your teeth or grabbing a glass of water is check the latest and greatest on your blackberry? Or perhaps, checking e-mail as you eat breakfast, so that the breakfast table is now a relic of the past which has a current use of a mail sorting center for your household? Some have SO disconnected from human interaction (in person), that Japan is reporting an increase in men checking into hotels with...VIRTUAL WOMEN on their laptops! (LOSER)

Our fathers are addicted to Xbox, our mothers addicted to facebook, and our kids addicted to texting. Magazines online, Newspapers online, shopping online, work presentations are online and you could even go to CHURCH online! I am not saying that this advance in technology is a bad thing, I admit that I have an xbox, a facebook account and a blackberry, but I think its time that I disconnect from a few things for the sake of keeping the gift of HUMAN interaction alive. I've read articles on divorces announced through facebook, resigning from work, firing an employee, long declarations of love, and my favorite... communicating with the dead on facebook!

My point is this, when our kids turn into the third wheel, while we are on a date with the world through a screen... we've lost something that is critical and before we know it, we'll lose our kids to it as well.

Quik Thought

It's been a long time... This of course because of the massive responsibility that one takes with parenting. When you made that decision in starting a family, chances are you didn't think of the essential things in life that you took for granted... until now. Waking up, walking around the house as you please without hearing "I'm hungry!" Or what about the sound of your breath, that is, without the two toddlers in the background wrestling over a glass of water... We have about 10 different cups, all shapes and sizes, colors abundantly, not to mention the infinite source of water that we seem to have in this country... KNOCK IT OFF SO I CAN ENJOY THE SOUND OF MY BREATHING!

Oh what a challange these little boys are... I enjoy it though. While I wake up and hear the grumbles of my 4 year old, followed by a whine, I marvel at the fact that... he looks like me, has the hair of his mom and is stubborn like dad. Incredible how our kids can be a mirror of ourselves, and what that does to us? SAVE THEM! Seriously though, to ponder on the fact that these little people will be the next generation to carry the torch for this country, but also for our faith. What are we teaching them? To love the Lord with all there heart, mind and strength? Or are we showing them to be relevant, in a manner that completely disregards holiness? Are we being examples of the gospel in how we interact with their mommy, or are we just going through the motions, stepping on everyones toes, being the Savior of OURSELVES? The questions may seem redundant, but how often do we stop to analyze how OUR sins, affect OUR kids?

Oh how I pray that God will have mercy on our children!