I’ve owned a mobile phone for over a decade. When I got my first one it was the size of a small brick, it had a tiny black and white LCD display, at BEST it made calls. There weren’t games, the internet, no additional distractions. It was, for all intents and purposes, an expensive, cordless phone.

Fast forward to today, my iPhone is my everything, seriously, if it doesn’t have it built it, there’s an app for it.

My wife and I sat across each other this weekend, both on our phones, connected to our own little worlds and the thought occurred to me, what did we do before all of this? Without the distractions, without multitasking, just spending time engaged in conversation, talking, I mean REALLY talking about our goals, ambitions and plans.

We now have two small children, each vying for our attention and time, and truthfully there are moments when they’re almost invisible. I’m on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram or worse, Pinterest, the void where time disappears quicker than hotdogs at an eating content.

Is this intentional living? Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE technology, but where do we draw the line? I know some folks, ourselves included, who limit our kids media intake, but what about the crap we are putting into our own minds daily?

I’ve pinned over 2,400 pins, largely decor/craft/DIY related, now imagine I’d actually used the time it took to amass that volume and I don’t know, actually DID something with my hands and that time?

This morning our minister preached a sermon on what he titled “The spiral of Intimacy”. He surmised that majority of married life is essentially made up of small, fleeting and almost inconsequential moments of time, but it’s how we choose to react in these moments that dictate the course of our spiral, either a spiral of intimacy or destruction and inevitably breakdown.

I don’t want to wake up one day and look over at the Mother of my children and love of my life and wonder, “Who is this person?”. I was too busy living life through my phone and not actually living life.

The ad above is a Thai PSA encouraging viewers to connect with their loved ones by disconnecting to connect. The final narration directly translated is “Turn it off and open up to those around you.”, I need to turn it off.

Goodnight.