TV and our Children
It’s the hottest of hot topics. Peruse Christian online forums and parenting sites and you will see, TV is rapidly becoming a no-no. If not for the questionable feature content, the advertisements themselves are enough to shut the television off. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that children under the age of 2 watch no television, while children above the age of 2 should watch just 1-2 hours of “quality programming” (“How TV Affects Your Child”).
Building the Temple
Scripture tells us in plain truth in 1 Corinthians 6:19, “Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.”
It’s true, there is not merely a temple in scripture, a temple in heaven, or a temple within us. We are the temple. Our bodies make up a temple in which the Spirit can dwell. There is more to it than just asking the Spirit to dwell in us, however.
Have you ever seen a temple without a wall?
Biblical temples have walls surrounding them–fortresses to protect it from the outside. These are not flimsy wooden walls. These are concrete walls, higher than any man can climb and usually as thick as several men lying side to side. In some cases there are guards manning the walls. What is the purpose of this wall? What is it keeping out?
A Temple Within Us
Each of us with body, mind, and spirit make up a temple in which the Holy Spirit can dwell, but is that all there is to the story? In the last year I have realize that there is more to this living temple. It isn’t just about our diet or exercise. Yes, that is important, but these are things that affect our physical body. What about our spiritual body?
TV Time
When we as Americans are spending 34 hours a week watching television we have to wonder how all that interference is affecting our temple (New York Daily News). We have no problem building a temple wall around our health by nutrition and fitness, so why has it become so unorthodox to do so when it comes to our television?
Quality and Quantity
As a mother it is my duty to protect my children and their temples, so that the Spirit can dwell within them. I can do this by removing the TV completely from our house (which many of my friends have done, and it works for them); I can put the TV in my own bedroom and only allow a few programs per day, or per week; I could refuse to use cable and only use DVDs, or other programs like Netflix; we can screen the programming that comes into our home to assure they are uplifting or Biblical.
The issues of quality and quantity when it comes to television will vary from family to family, but the fact remains, that as parents we need to build these temple walls around our children. We do this by family discussion and through prayer. We do this so that when the children are old enough, they can understand how important it is to protect the temple in all ways.
I am no island.
My kids are like my arms and legs. If they were not around me everyday I would feel like I’d lost a limb. For this reason I have to learn to protect my temple in the same way I do my children. All too often we forget this fact. We have to be in good physical and spiritual health to care for our children and to set an example for them, but that is a topic for another blog!
Image courtesy of Salvatore Vuono, / FreeDigitalPhotos.net.
