An Early Start…

I decided, due to encouragement from others, including Dave Roberts, (aka Partakers_Dave) that this past Sunday, I was going to switch off everything digital. However, as a Facebook friend pointed out, phones are digital too! I keep mine on at night in case I have an emergency, which meant there was the temptation to use the internet that way. That’s why I decided I’d start on Saturday night. I have to confess, I did reach for it, but quickly checked it, and left it alone. However, I didn’t sleep like a baby, as I was expecting to!

I was shocked on Sunday morning to discover the first thing I did after I was up and ready was to switch my laptop on without thinking… there’s a habit I have to break right there! (and, I’ve switched my computer on without breakfast… I notice I’ve neglected the porridge kind as well as the spiritual kind!!) However, I switched it off again, to switch on my radio! This time, I switched it on before I remembered it was digital too. This time, I decided to leave it on for a bit, as UCB Christian Radio has a lot of praise and worship songs on a Sunday, and so the cat strangling began (no actual cats involved, I hasten to add!!) I switched the radio off, and did have a proper quiet time. I love Good Book Company’s Explore notes, so relevant, but without selling-out. Off I went to church, feeling nourished and calm. As an added bonus, I didn’t fall asleep in the service!

What to do, with all this ‘free’ time!

I can’t actually remember what I did on Sunday afternoon after I got back from church lunch. I do remember phoning my grandparents, which meant breaking the Sabbath again, seeing as the phone is digital. Phoning them of a Sunday afternoon is another ‘habit’, but seeing as this is a healthy one I figured it was okay. I did notice that having started the day without the laptop I was more rested in general, with might have something to do with the fact I didn’t fall asleep in my wheelchair as usual, or might just be co-incidence!

I did finally succumb and switch my laptop on around teatime, which was not the end of the Sabbath, as one of my friends pointed out. I’m not really sure why, I think I made excuses to myself that it was okay as I had managed a proper ‘quiet time’ and everything, and I did find in general my head was more ‘Jesus focused’, thinking about what I had heard in church that day on “past, present and future”. (Philipians 3, 1-11, if anyone’s interested).

 

So, what did I learn?

I have to say, I thought I had learned the importance of not switching the laptop on so soon, and here I find myself in the same situation again having switched the laptop on, and blogging before I’ve had my ‘quiet time’ with my Bible. I guess that’s the main thing I learned, though it sounds painfully simple, how soon blogging has become a habit, when other habits are so hard to learn, or so difficult to break! That, and how obsessive I am about checking my phone! Although, I managed to control that better than I thought. I’m really going to have to be more aware of what I do when! It sounds so arbitrary, but maybe I really will have to put a post it note or something over the switch on the laptop so I notice when I am switching it on! I have no excuses at all seeing as care was on time this morning and everything.  I can hear my dear Granny’s voice in my head, about none of those things being excuses either, and so I am off…