Prayers for technology and distraction
Screens are pulling my family apart
For attention, stillness, and the pull of the screen.
Also for family screen time · kids on devices · no conversation at dinner · everyone on their phones · ipad · gaming kids · disconnected family · phone at the table · tech boundaries · quality time · parenting and screens
These words, which I command you today, shall be on your heart; and you shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise up.
Therefore watch carefully how you walk, not as unwise, but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil.
So teach us to count our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.
You fathers, don’t provoke your children to wrath, but nurture them in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.
If it seems evil to you to serve Yahweh, choose today whom you will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell; but as for me and my house, we will serve Yahweh.”
In love of the brothers be tenderly affectionate to one another; in honor preferring one another;
A prayer
Original writing, not a quotation of Scripture.
Lord, we sit in the same room, each of us lit by a different screen, and nobody is really together. I'm part of the problem too. Give us wisdom for boundaries that protect our time: a table without phones, evenings with room for talking and laughing.
Help me model it before I ask the kids to. Turn our hearts back toward each other, and let our home be a place where people are more interesting than devices. In Jesus' name, Amen.