Wednesday, March 17, 2010

TV is chewing gum for the eyes

I've been reflecting over myself the past few days...about the things I need to work on, and things I need to let go. I've realized how much tv has taken over my life...I have detached myself away from family, friends, personal goals, etc...

Recently my routine is to come home, eat lunch, turn on the tv whilst I eat lunch, (and unfortunately I hate to admit this....) stay there for hours until Brandon comes home. How unhealthy is that?! Yes, I understand it's nice to sit down and relax, to veg and not think about what I need to work on for a few minutes, maybe even a hour...but HOURS?! How can I let myself waste that time?! How did I? Obviously there are many reasons, and I shouldn't make excuses. What I need to do, is to make a change.

This morning I was reading an article on www.lds.org, it's called 'Television and Time - By Elder F. Burton Howardof the First Quorum of the Seventy.' There were quite a few points in his talk that caught my attention, but by far this paragraph hit me hard...

"Now, brothers and sisters, one of the great cries of modern man is we don’t have time to do the things we should do. We don’t do our genealogy because we don’t have time. We don’t love our neighbor because we don’t have time. And yet we spend more time watching television than any other single elective thing in this world. I don’t believe the excuse is going to hold any water with the Lord. I don’t believe that we can ever say we didn’t have time. I think all we’ll be able to say, rather lamely, is that our priorities were not the same as the Lord’s."

How profound are these words, and he wrote them in 1979!

My goals are to start reading more, to clean up throughout the week, so Saturdays aren't spent with all day cleaning. To be more aware of my family, neighbors and friends, to start attending the temple more often, etc etc. I need to set my priorities to where they are more intune with the Lords.

** Side note - There are a few shows I just can't give up. I do feel that I can watch some tv from time to time and be ok...But not what I've been doing. I'm ashamed. **