Over the last several years I have had a bit of a love hate relation with the TV.  If I wrote a pros and cons list I honestly can’t come up with many pros, my list would look something like this;

• entertainment (Not always a positive)
• noise in background

Philippians 4:8 says ~”Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable–if anything is excellent or praiseworthy–think about such things.”

• true
• noble
• right
• pure
• lovely
• admirable
• excellent
• praiseworthy

If I use the above list as my measure it doesn’t leave one with much to watch.  I wrestled with this because I like to be entertained by a story.  Dave and I have never paid for TV always seemed like a waste of money, but with rabbit ears we were always able to pull in some channels.  When we moved here we only got one channel, but in the evenings I would often watch a show or two  I had my favorites.  Yet this verse would come to mind and I would think I really shouldn’t be watching this, but I had been sucked in I wanted to know how it would end.

When Joel came home from the hospital one of the agreements was that we would sleep with Joel so he would spend his evenings with me.   Once again I thought about how appropriate the programs were or were not that I was watching.  If I could not watch it with Joel was it appropriate for me just because I was a grown up?

This summer I finally had it with the TV and felt if I was going to take God at His word then I shouldn’t be filling my mind with anything that couldn’t line up with Phil 4:8.

For me my cons list looks like this;

• huge time waster
• negative influence on my kids
• instills a desire to be entertained in my kids
• softens us to sin, one stat I read stated, “An average American child will see 200,000 violent acts and 16,000 murders on TV by age 18.”
• encourages laziness, greed and inactivity.

Sure one can argue that there is educational value to TV, and that it keeps us current on world news.  Yet a newspaper, radio or Internet can keep you posted on current events.  The library is full of educational experiences.

We have not kicked our TV right to the curb we are no longer using it to watch broadcast TV, but we do watch DVD’s and we have always been rather selective in what we watch.  However, we have had some duds make it through and the kids are usually on the ball about saying if it doesn’t meet the standard.

I may sound like I am taking things too far and that’s okay, at the end of the day we all have to look ourselves in the mirror.  For me this has become an area I do not wish to compromise.

I am surprised that I ever had time to sit and watch TV.  My evenings are just as busy as ever.  I have to say I thought I would miss it but I am oh so glad to report I don’t.  (Oh and I do read more books.)