TLP 428: Is Your Family’s Tech Usage Healthy? | Nathan & Anna Sutherland Interview, Part 2

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00:03

This is true really outside -of -the -box thinker. Yeah, or maybe outside of the law

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She's one of those Welcome to truth love

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Parents where we use God's Word to become intentional premeditated parents.

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Here's your host a .m. Brewster This is part two of my conversation with Nathan and Anna Sutherland from Flint and iron and the gospel tech podcast

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You really need to check out the amazing discount. They're offering for their family tech framework. It's so great now today

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We're talking about how to perform a tech reset Which will enable you to determine if you or other people in your family might need to reevaluate their tech usage.

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Enjoy Hello friends. I welcome you again to truth love parent

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I am your host a .m. Brewster and today is part two of an interview We started last week now

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We plan to do four interviews in this series and each of them builds on the previous So if you didn't catch part one,

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I highly recommend that you start there And for those of you who are returning with us today, you met the Sutherlands last time

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But I still thought it would be fun to get to know them a little bit more and one way I thought about doing that Was asking them a little trivia question.

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Welcome back you guys Thank you It's good to be back All right, you ready for some trivia?

01:24

Yes. Yeah. All right. Here's the question. I'll ask it I'll give you a minute to think while I give my answer.

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All right. Here's the question What technology have you deliberately used in a way that the creator of the technology did not intend for it to be used

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All right, so they made it to do this, but you ended up using it to do this They would never have even thought that all right for me.

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It was back in the 90s So I started this alternative rock band. I'm not gonna tell you the name of the band

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You may actually know it, but you're not gonna try So back then most people, you know, they recorded their music in a studio, right?

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now We ended up doing that later on. Okay, we ended up recording a studio But at the very beginning

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I took this computer software that was called acid. Yeah, I know 90s computer software is the best

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Move past the name And I used it to record my band's music on my computer

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Now it's not really very impressive, but you have to understand this acid was designed for people to create music

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But it was primarily let's like just loop of based electronic music and at the time I was able to finagle the system and forced it into becoming what you know

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Apple's garage band and tons of apps do for you today So yes, I was recording my music at home before it was cool or even possible

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You guys has there ever been a piece of tech that you thought you know, I know it wasn't made for this But I'm pretty sure

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I can make this work. I Limitations has reached because we have a friend who did this is what we're trying to say

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This friend that was in college in the early 2000s and in the dorms

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There was just you could access file sharing To get into right like you could share your word documents was the intention

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But instead I had this friend Access to Everybody's music when you went to the file sharing service, so it was like Napster before Napster like great

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I just got into the whole door Here's everybody in the halls music files and Drag and drop them onto your computer

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We I feel like it was before we even knew the piracy was a thing thanks open -source research from college

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Yeah, we learned a lot. That's what they were intending for us to be doing Well played yeah mine

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Mine's mine's not that exciting. I did actually think of of one but it actually just it left while I was listening and raptured by your story

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My how devious your wife is it's like hey, it's like I don't even know you I Literally don't have one.

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Oh, I do I got it. So last episode we we shared that we no longer have a television and so my

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Kind of breakthrough on that was I was looking at our laptop and it's like I really want a TV that I can like go

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To but not have like a room of my house dedicated to it And so we have begun using a laptop like a television and it's not at all intended to be that but it actually is awesome with the amount of like kids shows that you can just have access to with how little we actually end up engaging television and we have good enough internet connection that yeah, we actually use a laptop as our

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TV for when we do use a television and Yeah, that's it.

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I have to say that You know Anna wins Yeah, well do you just clearly yo you just you're not as creative as she is this is true really outside of the box thinker

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Yeah, or maybe outside Weird Al Yankovic has this song called don't download this song

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Which is absolutely fantastic. It's so beautiful And what I loved about it was that he he put it free on his website.

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Anybody could download it. It was beautiful But I love it Yeah That's it just reminded me of you because he references all of that crazy stuff that we did back then when it was legally illegal

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It wasn't there weren't rules about it yet. It was just a wild west. Yeah, exactly. It was crazy

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It was worse than Twitter true, okay, so Last time if we don't get this train on the track, we are so in trouble

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Nathan and Anna and I talked about their podcast gospel tech and I hope since then you obeyed the rules and Subscribed and you started consuming their content

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And I'm also hoping that many of you have taken advantage of their 50 % discount from their online workshop

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That they've offered for us TLP listeners Now we also talked about how the gospel absolutely must permeate our tech usage

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And we saw that tech generally falls into two different categories tool tech and drool tech

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You might think of it like productive tech and unproductive tech or work tech and entertainment tech neither one inherently better than the other

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When they're used proportionately, so today Nathan and Anna are going to help us determine if our family's tech usage is healthy or unhealthy and Then we plan to talk about what to do if we discover that one or more people in our home have an unhealthy relationship

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With technology. So, all right, you guys you ready? How do I know if my tech use is healthy?

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Yeah Do you want to tackle this one for the start? I think you could start. All right We get this one a lot.

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So she is the more creative one. It's true She'll she'll let me know if I miss anything though. Don't worry

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We get this a lot I mean speaking of school speaking at churches speaking just with like family friends back Well, you know, especially in time of quarantine like is this just a new normal that I'm not used to am

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I like one of? Those old people yelling at kids to get off my lawn or is this an actual problem that I need to interview, right?

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Because I don't know like a lot of parents watch their kids participate in stuff like man I don't I don't love it

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Like I just kind of have this spidey sense that something's off But if I address the kid or if I bring it up like I'm worried,

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I'm gonna look stupid I'm worried. They're gonna get mad at me. I'm worried that I'm gonna get you know, like exposed as someone who's technologically foggy

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Yeah, right and so like what do we do? And so the resets are really nice way You basically look at five areas of your life

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I would encourage you to actually first assess like how much tool tech how much drool tech from when you wake up to when?

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You go to sleep if you have a smart say something you may I think the first thing you have to do before having this

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Conversation with somebody else in your house is you have to assess your own tech use Oh, yeah so before you come to a child or a spouse and say

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I'm concerned about your tech and I would like to have this conversation I Think most of us

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There's a verse for that Yes But I think it to have an honest

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Self -assessment is a really and to come at it from a humble attitude instead of a self -righteous like my tech use is so perfect And I'm doing such a great job and look at you over here doing this

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Like let's have this conversation together and let's work through this this Reese Nathan calls it a reset

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Together and be on the same team instead of an attack. Yeah. Well, that's exactly what happened with me only it wasn't the attack

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But you know, I gave my actually I said he was 13. He is 13, but he's almost 14 year old a cell phone and I started to realize that some of the expectations

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I had for him I didn't have for this guy standing right here and I realized that the hypocrisy of that that I didn't even see it

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You know myself, but I'm wanting it for him because I listen to gospel tech. I know how important is for him but yeah, so totally great advice starting with me first and digesting it and Applying it for myself before I go pointing fingers at everyone else in the house and the specs they have in their technological eyes, right?

09:22

That's really good because I can just get excited and Get people all riled up and then they just want to bring a truth hammer on people and that's not the goal like the goal of this resource is not to Let you get the ammunition to win some argument about technology and be like Nathan said so yeah one

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You're undermining yourself in your own family and two you're losing all of the opportunity to minister and love to that person

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And really show them Christ's love in action. So Boom nailed it With this reset then we look at our own first and then others

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How does it impact does basically you're asking the question does techno technology impede my?

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relationships and responsibilities my Enjoyment sleep emotions and time and if you read any of acronym, it's an acronym

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It's an R E S E T. Yes Yeah, and so the idea that language arts teacher just couldn't stay caged inside me had to come out with an acronym and And the idea there being if you've read all the research

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These are really the five areas where technology can be concerning and usually it's drool tech

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All right, so we're talking nine out of ten times drool tech is going to be the impediment in one of those areas I do want to when we talk to rule tech

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What to say the four major categories kind of so people can be mulling on this as we're talking through it would be music

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Social media games and then your shows or streaming personalities or whatever you're doing for kind of that entertainment piece

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So those are kind of four categories and we look at all right Does this impact my relationships from responsibilities the people that I've committed to the things

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I've done? so in this case, it wouldn't be It would be the case of like well my kid loves

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You know That's committed to playing this sport as serving in this area or family dinners, right?

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like things that we're just expected to do as part of a family and now I'm Forgoing this because I'm on my phone on my laptop right on that whatever.

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I've got my headphones on I'm sitting in a corner locked away listening to my music and while music is great that can be concerning, right?

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So that'd be our first is can I do you want me to run through them real quick? Was that helpful?

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Yeah so the R stood for relationships and responsibilities yep, so you're saying that if my own second so if my tech usage is

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Interfering with those or dragging them down or I'm neglecting relationships Neglecting them.

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Okay, so then that would be a red flag going. Hmm. Okay there this this tech usage would whether it's drool or tool tech

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Like for example, if I'm working, you know, 10 12 15 hours a day and I'm never seeing my family

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I could say that my tool tech potentially is also you know, impeding my relationships, right? So yeah, and your responsibility as a as a father and a husband, right?

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Like you have a responsibility more than just paying the bills So maybe man is this is this job going to change like is this just a season where you know?

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What having a baby like we had a baby 20 months ago Having a baby impedes my sleep and my relationships and my emotion right like if I wasn't but it's this season and we're doing

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The only option And so that idea of like, all right, we're gonna look at this reasonably.

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We understand we all have bad days We all understand like that. That's this is reality that we're living in and especially in time of quarantine so it's not just if you have any error ever then throw it out the window, but but to truly assess like Is there a pattern and is this hindering my ability to be who

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God has called me to be? And for some of us it's gonna be a glaring. Yes, and and yet this is why it's helpful to actually go through So spouses,

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I would strongly encourage you to go through Because I have a lot of spouses who asked me if I would talk to their spouse for them and the answer is a hard No, that's not my job

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No, but like I will give you this resource and you can do it lovingly and prayerfully and have an amazing

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Marital opportunity. They're like that's the goal here. So yes For a second,

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I want to get to that But before we do that since no doubt everyone's driving or washing dishes right now Is there someplace where they can go to is there like a copy of the reset or a copy of the acronym or something?

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Yeah, there's two. So the first would be actually on that you mentioned the online tech framework so the family tech framework the online workshop comes with these kind of three to five minute videos and then basically six sections that you go through to talk about Resets and what are the types of tech and how do we build this kind of common language with our family?

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And the second part makes a framework And so that's the first spot to go. The second is you can go to gospel tech net and on gospel tech net

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It'll be in the articles. I believe it's news and articles is the subject heading. It's a new hot website from us

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So we're still getting used to it, which is why you're like, why don't you know what it's called because it is brand new So there's a blog post that walks you through the reset and what that conversation can look like kind of some more anecdotal stuff

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Okay. All right. So then the E is Ease emotions. Yep.

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So if if your tech use is impacting your emotions So this might be I feel like especially in kids would be like those big

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Swings of okay. Your gaming time is over. Your phone time is over and we can't just walk away

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I'm mad if I don't get it I'm Mopi if I don't get it or even adults because I feel like it's we like to say this is just kids

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But I feel like I've seen that in my own heart sometimes like oh, I didn't get my show time I didn't get my five minutes to scroll through whatever

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I was hoping for and I feel like that your emotional Reaction to that can be a big indicator of the place that's holding in your heart.

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Yeah Yeah, for me, I have this I've got this app that I do like brain training on You know because that's supposed to be better than just playing a game, right?

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But there have been times where I've not Performed as well as I wanted to and I've seen my brain score going down and I'm getting frustrated.

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I'm getting aggravated That would also be an example of that. Mm -hmm yeah, okay, and and they

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I I'll leave this again. Just this idea that as you're going just note. It's a yes or no.

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It's binary So it's not like well, I kind of am like no Like if it's relationships responsibilities if it's emotions and you have any flags come up It's a yes and just leave it at a yes

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Like we'll talk about what to do about that But we have to be very honest And if you don't feel you can be objective ask someone parents ask your kids one of my favorite questions and talks with young adults

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We're talking fifth grade through high school would be What unhealthy tech use do you see happen in your family and they can they're keeping a mental list folks?

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They see it. They know better than to say it But if you ask for their honest feedback and promise, they won't get grounded for saying it there the texting and driving that we do the

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Amount of time we check our phone or check our smartwatch at the dinner table like the stuff that is just second nature

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We don't realize it your kids will let you know. So Emotions is the second one. Mm -hmm.

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Next one sleep. That's this sleep. Is it impacting your sleep? So, oh man

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That's sleep sleep is huge because like the research shows us that it literally impacts everything

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It impacts your ability to retain information your ability to process emotions your orbital frontal cortex

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Which allows you some inhibition actually quits being as active when you are sleep deprived

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Especially in developing brains and they already don't really have one. So it doesn't get fully developed until I think 23 24 so Sleep is crazy important And if we are breaking our sleep to write down that note check that one thing send that last snap like whatever we're doing

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We are impeding really our highest potential and and the opportunities

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God is giving us So we need to take sleep. Seriously. It is a huge deal I mean even down to working out like if you're someone who takes exercise seriously the research on What two groups taking the same supplements do but one group gets under six hours and one group gets over eight hours

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Just the amount of muscle mass and fat retention that occurs is nuts. So Work smarter not harder get your sleep and don't let tech impede it

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Awesome. All right, the next next is enjoyment and this one can be misunderstood

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Because we do develop like I like things that I didn't like ten years ago, right? So our kids growing up and begin

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Broccoli for example, but changing your enjoyment isn't necessarily bad I'm not talking about man.

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My kid used to love Legos and now they want to use AutoCAD I'm talking to man My kid used to love

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Legos But now all they want to do is play fortnight and fortnight is their jam and we come up with all these reasons

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It's fine to like fortnight But not if it comes at the expense of these things that are wired into you and I will just use this as the example

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We have three kiddos Hadley's still kind of developing her personality as she's coming upon to here

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But Owen and Henry are wired very uniquely like Owen makes a list. He keeps it

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I found a sticky note on my desk yesterday and it was the top five things Owen was gonna do after waking up okay, and if he's seven, but but he checks him off as he goes through his day

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Henry's never made a list in his life and Right. He just he's very laissez -faire about everything and they get joy out of different things

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Henry's the best thing you can do is Be funny if I'm like Henry, what'd you think about that? He's like it was funny and that's like the highest compliment you get right?

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Oh, and it's if it's organized right organized And maybe not too loud. And so when if I were to see those boys change their their enjoyment like if Owen suddenly became like this very aggressive like Outgoing individual and it always was related to his time on that device his time on that app his time on that game, right?

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I'm gonna go you know what like I'm seeing this change in what you enjoy and how you're wired and it's

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Specifically tied to this particular outlet. I would just make note of that and that would be part of this conversation

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So we're not saying people don't change. We're not saying you can't be enthralled with technology because there are some really enthralling cool

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Opportunities, but we're looking for those really distinct like man I spidey sense starts tingling if it's the enjoyment that's shifting.

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Just watch it. You've that'll be part of the conversation. Mm -hmm So that's the last E and then the last letter is

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T in the reset for your time Can you stop when you say you're gonna stop can you walk away from it?

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Like if we have a you're allowed to play for 30 minutes, whatever the parameters are. Can you walk away? If you can't or constantly going over that time limit or sneaking time or Lying about your time use then that's a red flag that something's

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Something's not right here. Yeah Yeah, and then so we so go ahead go ahead no, no you go ahead tag, you're it yeah

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All right, sweet. So you have those five you have your relationships and responsibilities You have your enjoyment your sleep your emotions, or I think we did those

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Emotions sleep enjoyment and time Yeah and so you have those five and so you walk through yours like man does tech get in the way of any of these and Then you ask someone a close friend your spouse your kids

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And then you walk through that and what you do then is you go? All right. I need to acknowledge that this is a thing in my life.

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Like I've seen this as a deal now I need to pray through Lord. What do we need to do with this? Like is this an area of my life where I'm saying?

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Hey, you don't have the right to take this from me. I I deserve this. I my argument was I worked hard, right?

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I'm an adult. I don't do a lot of crazy stuff There's nothing morally wrong with my drool tech and I'm okay with this

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So that means everyone else needs to be okay with it, too But it was I was a four out of five right on a reset like I was clearly not healthy

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In this area, so the question needs to be well, does it need to draw it down? Do you need to change when you're using it how you're using it more accountability or is it just a full?

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We need to cut it off gouge it out and move on to something better as a as a replacement Trusting that God's gonna be enough that we can convince ourselves.

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We need things that really we just want And I think that's an important conversation with a reset to have so that then you when you go to somebody else to have it

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You can share kind of what God's doing in your heart as you present to them Like here's what

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I love you. We see who you're made in Christ and these areas are concerning to us Do you see that like that's the initial initial conversation?

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I think do you see that when you use this or listen to that music or on that app that your attitude?

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changes or that what you enjoy doing or that your commitment to the family or to those things that you said you were gonna do like our yes needs to be yes or no needs to be no and this is making you waffle right like are you seeing that and just starting there and Sometimes most kids have a pretty good idea

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Yeah, most kids aren't gonna be blindsided by that But now

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I imagine there are some people listening who are thinking of this tool, right? And if they if they had those five areas and they got yeses and all of them, okay

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It's affecting me in each of these areas. They'd be like, wow, I need a reset There are probably other people who are like, you know If I'm if I got half of those, you know, or you know, even two of those three of those

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I I probably need to consider a reset, but I'm kind of thinking that Even if one if my technology is negatively affecting even one of those areas.

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I need to strongly consider a reset Mm -hmm.

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Yeah, I Yes, you're absolutely right and the point here is not legalism The point isn't

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I'm gonna have a perfect life so that I can feel good about myself and start judging the people around me

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The point is do we want everything God has for us, right? We were told in Ephesians 2 10 that we are saved for good works

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He has prepared for us to do and if I'm getting distracted from those good works I'm not just not doing what

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God told me like that is sinful and concerning But like I'm also missing out on the joy that he's prepared for me

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Like he didn't just prepare work so that I busy and like the devil can't get my hands to do bad things

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Like no like he loves me and wants the best for me and everything he does for me is good

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So removing this technology if that's what he's asking us to do is a good thing and we're not giving up anything

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I'm reminded of the the parable of the guy who was walking through a field and found all the treasure and Often that parable is taught with like look what that gave man gave up for Jesus Like you should give stuff up for Jesus to when we recognize like no

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That's the opposite of Jesus point Jesus point is that guy gave up nothing like sure

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He sold his house and got like a palace worth of fortune for it Like he gave up like what little trinket did that man lose in that transaction that he didn't make over a hundredfold and that's when

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We're talking about technology. That's what we're talking about Like you might give up something that is so shiny and so nice and you it feels so important right now

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And if God's really asking to give that up like releasing that you lose nothing You only gain more of God and more space to be available for the work he's asking you to do and that's joy and that's peace and that's purpose and that's

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Absolutely the point of the time we're given in this life is to glorify God and revel in him so Amen, and that right there ladies and gentlemen is a perfect example of how

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Nathan and Anna are constantly bringing the gospel to bear on this. The gospel is not legalism

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Okay, it's not like if I cut this thing out of my life, I'm gonna go to heaven. No, that's not how it works It's a relationship with God where the like Matthew chapter 5, you know the beatitudes starting off there

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Yes, if you do this thing if you recognize that you are spiritually destitute if that grieves you if you come meekly before me

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If you hunger and thirst after righteousness the blessings far exceed that but at the same time

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We're not taking advantage of that relationship in order to get the blessings It it's such a beautiful picture and it needs to always be in focus and everything that we're doing including our tech usage

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And I don't know about the listeners, but just going through that process those five things I can recognize

25:11

Where I either have unhealthy tech use or am tempted to have unhealthy tech news use Like I said, you know getting aggravated and frustrated with that game

25:18

I'm playing and then in regard to our children, you know Given that most of them are less physically and spiritually mature than we are

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Okay, we can be certain that they are going to struggle at least as much as we do and likely far worse

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So what does the Bible have to say about a Christian's response to unhealthy tech? So we use the reset we recognize

25:37

All right, I can tell here Pragmatically that there are gonna be there are some issues. I it's affecting this it's affecting that Well now what

25:47

I would do Yeah Yes, I think we see really clearly and believe that it talks about removing and then we'll talk about replacing because they don't think

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We can just Say, okay. I'm gonna get rid of this tech and then just sit and not fill that void with something

26:07

So but I think it's pretty clear that if something's causing us to sin Like you said like sometimes that does just need to get removed completely

26:17

Do you want to talk more about that? so I think the you go Matthew 5 or Matthew 18 8 and so I'll just read it here because I Want I want

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I want you to hear Jesus where it's not mine If your hand or foot causes you to stumble cut it off and throw it from you

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It is better for you to enter life crippled or lame than to have two hands or two feet and be cast into the eternal fire if Your eye causes you to stumble pluck it out and throw it from you it is better for you to enter life with one eye than to have two eyes and be cast into the fiery hell and The beauty of that is this picture of like man

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Like what we need is Jesus because he has given us access to the Father, right? He's bringing us in as heirs of God and co -heirs with Christ We're now filled with the

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Holy Spirit so that we're empowered to do the good works I don't have to go God, please like help me with this thing

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Like no, he already did like we repent and turn to the feet of Jesus and in in that we are now empowered for that work

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So we start to live in it, right? We don't have to spend our lives begging for God to have mercy on us like he's had mercy on us

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That's the whole reason judgments gonna come like, you know the only reason judgment is there is because we've denied mercy like we picked that and that idea of When we gouge out and we cut off it isn't a mark of our righteousness as a mark of our need

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That is an act of faith. And so in my life personally that has been gaming

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So shout out to the gamers out there. I still love gaming. I still do a lot of research. I do game reviews I do not play them and it's been nine years.

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We were married. I had a master's degree We I had a career job and that was going well, but I'll tell you this

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I was heavily convicted through a sermon About addiction and I had stayed up too late gaming one night and the pastor basically said hey

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If you are asking God to help you manage your sin, you're praying the wrong prayer. God doesn't manage sin

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He kills it and literally my 2 a .m. Prayer had been dear Jesus Help this gamey not get in the way of who you want me to be.

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Amen, and I went to bed, right? so four hours later, I'm sitting in church here in the sermon and The conviction led me to well, all right,

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I have this 10 hours a week. I'm not gaming I started serving with young people in young life. I realized it's not teaching kids in a classroom

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It's teaching kids in a greater perspective and it literally has brought us to this podcast right here Because we faithfully stepped where God had asked us now

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I'm not gonna tell you God's gonna make you do a podcast or quit your job if you leave this tech But I'm gonna say you there's it is not worth holding on to whatever that little thing was

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So that's just an example that has been all too real in my life And I think as we walk out, it's you gouge it out you cut it off and then you replace it with Whatever God has equipped you with a passion like out

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Most misused tech comes from like most sins right a twisting or a distortion of something good that God has put in you

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And so my love of adventure is my love of people my love of excitement Well, you can meet that really quick in a video game but you have no reason to extend past that video game if you're like me that becomes kind of the pinnacle of your existence and It did for me.

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So God has then replaced that with other adventures and with ones that frankly, they're a little bit slower

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Working a nonprofit doesn't quite give the same minute -to -minute thrills of a triple -a video game rush, right?

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It's just not quite there I don't level up nearly as much in real life as I did in video games but it's absolutely been worth it because of the joy of doing this work and I've seen people set free and I know that that joy is available for anyone who would faithfully take it that joy of being more present with your family and The person

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God's making it to be yeah Yeah in the biblical counseling arena. We refer to that as radical amputation being willing to say that this thing

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Is this helping me become more like Christ or is this hindering me if it's hindering me?

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Why do I want that in my life? We don't we don't do that really in any other area of our lives except for our spiritual growth and our eating

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Those are generally the only times we're like this poisons. Okay, I'll be fine, you know

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Pretty much everywhere else in our lives. We're like, oh no that might kill me. Let's get it out of my life Oh, no, this is you know, this is gonna give me cancer.

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This is it's radioactive I should probably not be standing next to it, right and we get it in other areas

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But in our in our food consumption and in our tech oftentimes in our spiritual life, we just don't get it

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We say this thing it's okay. I know it's not good for me It's not helping me become more like Christ, but it's okay

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And this passage from Matthew 18 just makes it perfectly clear that sometimes Many times we have to radically amputate that old thing and then

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I love what both of you said That whole idea it's it's not just getting rid of it It's about you know,

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Jesus says that we need to cast our cares and our burdens on him But then he tells us to take up our cross and follow him to take up his burden

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Which is light and I'm reminded of Ephesians 4 22 through 24. I'll read it here, too

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It says in reference to your former manner of life Okay, former you lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit

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So we see that that cancer like effect It's having and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind and then you put on the new self

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Which is in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth

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And it's so beautiful because it doesn't mean like oh, no, I'm completely without this is a terrible awful metaphor

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But it just came to my mind and it helps If you've seen Harry Potter if you've read it

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There's this place where this this One of the bad guys his henchmen has to literally chop off his arm in order to help his his dark

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Lord master come back and he does that it's it's it's it's so His loyalty and his his fear and whatnot was just it was crazy, but he actually did it

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Well, then when the when this dark Lord rises, he actually gives him this magical Replacement to his arm and it's more powerful and it's it's shiny

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But you know that's I said, that's a terrible example because we have this awful person serving this other awful person but he that awful person was willing to sacrifice a limb in order to bring his his false

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God back to life and he was Rewarded for it. Well if that as that is such a terrible example in a much more infinitely

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Glorious and fantastic way when God says listen, you need to cut this out of your life. This is not helping you

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This is not pleasing me. You need to get rid of it He is he wants us to replace that and he wants us to replace it with things with him really for first and foremost and then the joy that he brings the fulfillment that he brings the the the

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Excitement and the the fervor for life that he brings when we're living the life that he created us to live

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Set free from those shackles is so more abundantly amazing and wonderful than whatever it was.

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We left behind It's like CS Lewis talking about little kids playing in a mud puddle Not wanting to go to the beach because they don't they have no idea

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They can't even conceive of how great that would be and that's what we're talking about here You know, can we give this thing up?

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I mean this whatever it happens to be on here or can we give things up on here in order? By the way,

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I picked it up and someone texted me Check me check me can we can we cut that off?

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Trusting God's promise that what what his fulfillment joy through pleasing him is so much more enriching than anything that the world

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Has to offer. Mm -hmm Amen and and for some of us like there are people

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I know who can use their reset be like no I'm a zero out of five and then we go All right well how do we how do we maintain that because we're gonna continue to develop a new tech is gonna show up and there's bound to Be something that we find irresistible.

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So if you're a zero out of five, that's amazing Like now let's just how do you establish? That continued health as your kids continue to grow and as people enter your house and like there's those other forms of engagement.

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So Yeah, honestly, if you're a zero out of five, I'd like to have you on the show. We can cancel the rest And and you can come work for us, that'd be great exactly exactly

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All right. So as a biblical counselor again, I just cannot stress enough how important this step is of doing the reset

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Okay, too many Christians We just walk through our life assuming that we're making good choices because things just kind of seem to be working out

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But God's commanded us to be discerning students of the word. All right, so we need to intentionally and premeditatedly

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Investigate our choices to determine whether or not they're helping us glorify God or if they're simply being used to gratify our flesh

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If we truly want to parent our children for life and godliness, right? We must leave no stone unturned

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We can't say I'm gonna check all this stuff over here. But you know the tech thing That's okay, because the gospel needs to permeate everything in our lives that includes our tech usage

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Therefore we need to seriously consider whether our tech is pleasing the Lord and therefore healthy for our families

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Man this is so rich. So awesome. Thank you again, Nathan and Anna for your time. It's been so valuable Thank you for having it.

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Thank you for letting us be here I'm super very much looking forward to continuing this conversation with you guys even more because it's one thing to understand what technology is

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It's another thing to be able to determine if it's healthy or unhealthy and even understanding how to cut it out of our lives is

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So helpful, but a healthy spiritual life is not merely about jettisoning the bad Okay, we must renew our minds and put on the good so to that end next time

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We'll be discussing how you can create a family tech framework, which will help your whole family develop a healthy relationship with your tech

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I hope you guys will all subscribe to God. Sorry. Well, yes gospel tech to also parent you know while you're at it hit that subscribe button and I invite you to click the link in the description to learn more about the gospel tech online workshop and the