Maybe you would be appalled to see a teenage boy on his phone during service. (Or worse... to see the mom taking pictures during the sermon!) If you would take a closer look you would see that he's not playing a game or texting. He's following along with Pastor Tom on a Bible app.
It was hard for me at first to let them use their phones during church. Them, as in all three teenagers. After all, what kind of mom do I look like letting my kids have phones out during worship?? And what kind of ill-behaved teens can't leave their phones put away for an hour?
But after months of thinking about it I realize the only thing holding me back from letting them read the Bible on their phones during church is the way it looks to others. Shame on me. I'm trying to teach my kids not to judge others by the way they look or act and I'm doing that very thing. Well, today I forgot my Bible at home. I joined my kids and got out my phone. (As you can see because I snapped some inconspicuous pictures too. I'm thankful for my muted shutter release.) I love having the Bible on my phone. Genius idea! It even has red lettering for words spoken by Jesus. And I can read the text in any version I'd like.
I'd still rather read my leather bound Bible but my kids are welcome to read the Word of God in whatever form they'd like.
Here is a picture of E and F on the way home from church. E has a Bible in her pocket. (Not sure why F is holding a pen??) We are blessed to live in a country where we are free to worship and have a variety of different ways to read or listen to the scripture!
4 comments:
Love this, J. Great photo blog, and I love the snapshot of the scripture on your phone. You offer a great reminder in not letting the thoughts and judgments of others affect our parenting decisions. I know that I often do this, since our family lives under the congregational microscope at times.
I love your kids, truly, truly. And I love seeing them study God's Word!
Great parenting!
This is great. In my opinion, the church needs to be forward thinking when it comes to technology. My church growing up seemed to shy away from it, which sometimes was off-putting to me as a young member. My childhood church is also closing their doors, I feel one of the reasons is because they did not embrace the advantages that technology can offer, and did not appeal to the younger crowd which keeps a church going. I remember as a little girl going to the Crystal Cathedral in Anaheim California. They had a big screen with a ball that danced across the words instead of hymnals, they were the first place I saw this. I remember wanting to go there because it was so grand and neat. Now, not so much. Now I see it more as a huge waste of money both to build and to heat/cool. At the time I thought it was so awesome. That is great someone invented a bible app for the phone. Even though I spend WAY too much time on all my various technology, I still prefer my paper bible too. I like to make notes in the margin, and well nobody has made a make a notes in the margin of the Bible pages app yet.
Ryan and I both use our phone Bibles for church. I don't think it works for me for study and such but it is perfect for situations like this and how amazing is it to have the Word at your fingertips at all times? Love that Bible app. And Hallelujah for kids that are in the Word whatever the format! I just love them. If anyone has a problem with it, just blame the youth pastor. ;)
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