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Day 17
10 Steps to Control TV
By Al Menconi
"My
people mingle with the heathen, picking
up their evil ways, thus they become
as good-for-nothing as a half-baked cake!" (Hosea
7:8, New Living Translation)
There is so much that I could share
about the negative influence of television
on our families. But you already know
the power and influence of television
on your family, so I hope you are ready
to do something about it. The following
are ten suggestions that have proven
to be successful to start getting a handle
on TV viewing:
1) Get your television out
of your "living" room. Put
it in the "death" room. Put
your TV in a room where it isn't convenient
to watch. This will keep you from coming
home and simply turning on the television
because there isn't anything else to
do. If the television is not convenient
to watch, you'll be less likely to
waste so much time watching programs
that rob you of time with your family.
2) Have only one television
in the house. Families who
watch a lot of television have a more
difficult time communicating. If there
is more than one television in the
house, it adds fuel to the fire of "poor
communication." Whenever a family
member doesn't want to watch what the
family is watching, he isolates himself
even more by watching "his program" in
another part of the house.
3) Only watch with a mature
adult present. This is crucial
when a program comes on that is against
your family's values. A mature adult
needs to be there to counter-balance
the attack. They might have to turn
off the television if it happens more
than once.
4) Read the TV Guide (or
equivalent) at the beginning of the
week with your family. Choose and circle
the programs they can watch after other
family obligations are accomplished. This
allows each family member an opportunity
to express his opinion and desires.
You may be surprised what you will
learn about your family by the types
of programs they choose to watch.
5) Watch only the programs
that you circled at the beginning of
the week. This will keep
you from turning on the television
when you get home from work and wasting
the whole evening watching programs
that are worthless and you didn't like
in the first place.
6) Turn off the television
when it offends you. You already
decided what you were going to watch
at the beginning of the week. If you
just sit there changing channels, you
will end up going from an offensive
show to a less offensive one—not
to a worthwhile program. If it was worthwhile,
you would have selected it in the first
place.
7) Do another activity. I
can't believe how many people who ask
me what they should do if they don't
watch television! Talk to your family
and friends. Read. Play a game. Go for
a walk. Write a book. Volunteer to help
the needy. What did your grandparents
do, before someone decided we needed
to entertain ourselves to death?
8) The following week, circle
the programs you will watch with your
family that week. (Repeat
#4)
9) Turn off the offending programs. (Repeat
#6)
10) Don't circle programs that
have two offenses. You can
assume that it was a mistake the first
time the program offended you. The
second time, you can assume that it
is a concerted effort to undermine
you and your family’s values.
After a few weeks of following the
suggestions above, our family's television
viewing was cut to just a few hours a
week. If we can change, so can you.
Reflection: How practical
is it for you to implement these steps
in your life? I suggest you commit this
to prayer before you begin to apply these
steps in a realistic way in your home.
Response: Try using
poker chips to help you control the amount
of television you and your family watch
each week. Each poker chip can represent
one half hour of television. Parents,
decide how many hours of television each
family member is allowed each week and
hand each person the appropriate number
of chips. If you allow your child to
watch 10 hours of television each week,
give them an “allowance” of
20 chips (one for each half hour.) Each
time he wants to watch TV, he must turn
in a chip for each half hour. Don’t
return the chip even if he turns off
the television or leaves the room. Chip
s should be handed out each week and
cannot be “rolled over” to
the next week. Your children should become
more selective in their viewing so they
won’t waste their chips. It should
also cut down the overall time TV is
on in your house. If you’re single,
this is also a good way to develop TV
discipline.
Verse of the Day: 1 Samuel 16:23
"Whenever the evil spirit
from God came upon Saul, David would
take his harp and play. Then relief
would come to Saul; he would feel better,
and the evil spirit would leave him." (NIV)
This is a simple biblical principle.
Evil spirits cannot stand in the presence
of praises to God. Whenever I’m
tense, I make every effort to listen
to mellow Christian music. Like Saul,
my spirit is quieted. Try it. You might
like it.
This also reminds me of the time when
the children of Israel were commanded
to go into battle against their enemy
and God had them put their choir in front
of their army. When the choir started
to sing praises to God, the enemy fought
each other and Israel won the battle.
In effect they sang at their enemy and
were victorious.
May I suggest that you do the same!
Do you have the enemy of doubt? Try singing
songs of faith. The enemy of depression?
Sing songs of joy. What “enemy” do
you come against? Have you sung at them?
If you think I’m suggesting foolishness,
don’t knock it until you’ve
tried it.
Sometimes people have accused me of
teaching brainwashing here. That’s
right. That’s exactly what I am
suggesting! Brain wash – wash brain – CLEAN
BRAIN!!
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