Faith, Family, Fishing; Navigating Everyday life
Is your family hurting, broken, or just looking to become closer and stronger? Josh and Debbie are in the business of just that. Working through issues regarding the family from perspectives such as; Pastor, Counselor, Teachers, law enforcement, and parents themselves, Josh and Debbie bring a wealth of information about the family, as well as, real life solutions to problems. If you are a Gen X'er with adult children, a millennial with teenagers, a Gen Z just starting, or something else, we have a show for you. Come take a listen, our aim is to restore the family!
Faith, Family, Fishing; Navigating Everyday life
Scrolling Away Reality: A Fishing Rod Beats a Phone
Could your family's digital habits be destroying your relationships more than any banned book? While parents storm school board meetings over inappropriate literature, the unbridled use of technology in homes might be the real enemy we should be fighting.
The passionate debates about removing certain books from schools have dominated headlines, but this episode explores a more insidious threat lurking in the palm of your hand. Most children today barely read physical books—they're consuming content through devices with far fewer restrictions and much more dangerous consequences.
Research consistently links excessive screen time with anxiety, depression, poor self-esteem, and social isolation. Despite being called "social" media, these platforms often replace genuine human connection with artificial interactions. Many young people now lack basic conversational skills because they spend more time communicating through screens than in person. Family dinners, once essential for connection, have been replaced by individual family members retreating to separate rooms with their devices.
Physical consequences are equally concerning—from "tech neck" and early arthritis to disrupted sleep patterns and decreased physical activity. Even our cognitive abilities are changing, with basic memory skills deteriorating as we outsource remembering to our devices. As one educator notes: "We're training our brains to think in 30-second increments, then wondering why we can't sit down and work through complex problems."
The solution isn't banning technology entirely, but establishing healthy boundaries. Start with tech-free zones or times in your household. Take your family fishing, hiking, or engage in other activities that foster conversation. These shared experiences build resilience, teach valuable life skills, and create the sense of belonging children need.
Ready to strengthen your family connections? Follow us at missioncentorg across all platforms and share this episode to help other families reclaim what technology might be stealing from them.
we love you. We think you can always follow us at missioncentorg missioncentorg um or on facebook and instagram missioncent, missioncent you know again if you're going to spend time on there. Anyway, might as well do something productive follow us and share us and and help us spread the the good news. Hello and welcome to another episode with faith, family, family and Fishing, where our goal is to strengthen the family through faith and fishing.
Speaker 2:Oh, I thought you forgot family and I was like no, that was the first thing you said.
Speaker 1:I know, and that doesn't even matter. Hmm. I was going to say like should it be family faith, fishing. Strengthen the family through faith and fishing. Does it really matter? It doesn't.
Speaker 2:Probably not. No.
Speaker 1:But and I know it's been a few weeks, a few weeks, I know we missed one episode there May, the end of April, beginning of May. If you are an educator, you get it.
Speaker 2:We're sorry.
Speaker 1:we're praying for you there's like a million different things that have to happen at the end of the year and things that happen that you don't expect, that you have to deal with because it's the end of the year so, which leads me to what we're going to talk about today, because it's actually something near and dear to our heart, because we're both educators, and, if you pay attention to the news, one of the things that has been going on for quite a while now at least a couple years is this list of banned books that you just see everywhere.
Speaker 2:It's like school board meetings. People are reading them out loud, like straight in straight fights oh yeah like police involved? Yeah, there's been. Yeah, I was gonna say there's been times where there has been uh fistfights there have been fistfights and there have been people that have been dragged out by police officers yeah, people ain't allowed to go back to the school board meetings because, like, and I go and to an extent I get it oh yeah, Like.
Speaker 1:I mean some of these books. I mean they're pornographic.
Speaker 2:They're horrific.
Speaker 1:Yeah Like they're terrible books. Mm-hmm, so I'm not like trying to make it.
Speaker 2:You're not promoting the books Not being banned To be there.
Speaker 1:No, they shouldn't be there Like no, they shouldn't, Mm and you should be involved in your child's life like that. Absolutely Like you know, you should.
Speaker 2:You should know what's available to them, not available to them.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and what are they learning? Absolutely, I mean, think about it, your kid spends. You know, one of the things I try to get parents to understand is, for the most part, I mean, as an educator, I tend to spend more time with your kid Right, especially during their awake time, than you do as a parent, correct? So I mean, yeah, you should definitely be involved in all of that.
Speaker 1:However, what this has gotten me thinking is is banning books the solution? Again, I'm not saying that there aren't books that they should ban. Again, I'm not saying that there aren't books that they should ban.
Speaker 2:But you're asking if all these books get banned, is that going to fix what's morally wrong and corrupt with our Because I go, our what Education system the world?
Speaker 1:No, no, no With the family, with the family, okay.
Speaker 2:I just wanted to hone in on what specifically you were talking about.
Speaker 1:I don't care about the education system. There's a reason we started a private school, correct? I don't care about the education system. There's a reason we started a private school, correct? I don't believe in the public education system, do not.
Speaker 2:That being said, there are good public educators. Yeah, I'm not knocking anybody, no, no no, no, no.
Speaker 1:Well, a lot of our friends are public educators, and very, very good public educators. It is the system, it is the church abating responsibility, because education used to belong to the church. They were the ones that tried to educate the people, um, but but more so and and, like I said, this has nothing to do with the education aspect of it, has to do with the family aspect of it. Right and going is banning these books. Is that what's going to fix the family right? Like? Do you really think these kids are getting all these ideas and this deviant behavior from?
Speaker 2:books from sitting down and cracking open a book? Probably not. I'm gonna go out on a limb and just go say absolutely not.
Speaker 1:So let's just take a random group of 50 kids. Sure, two of them might read books.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:Maybe, and even then I think that might be on the high side.
Speaker 2:Where they're sitting down and opening cover to cover, just page turner.
Speaker 1:Right, I'm just stating the obvious here here. But is reading really where our fight should be? Um? Because kids, for the most part, do not just sit down and read anymore.
Speaker 1:Now you know what they do spend a lot of time doing scrolling oh yeah, social, yes, media, see, and that's where I think the problem really comes in, because you are so hot to ban these books and again I agree with you Books should be banned. No, I don't think everything should fall under the First Amendment and freedom of expression and speech. But why are you not just as hot to ban the Internet from your child?
Speaker 2:Well, I know why I stand.
Speaker 1:What well why?
Speaker 2:I think, because if parents pay attention, more attention, and focus more on their child social media there, it's going to take away from their own social media time oh, I could definitely see that, but like that's not everybody, that's just yesterday was mother's day.
Speaker 1:I was having a conversation with my mom about, like you know, my mom was saying like if you look at the difference in generation from her parents to her, yeah, there are differences, but like it's not huge. Even if you look at the the difference in generation from our parents to us, so Gen X to millennials it's still yeah, there's a bigger gap than from Boomer to Gen X, but if you look at the differences in millennial to zillennial Huge, or millennial to alphaillennial huge or millennial to alpha, holy goodness how like a huge, huge, huge difference in how you interact with the world right, how you see the world um, your worldview, just in general how you interact in conversation
Speaker 1:so one of the things we were talking about, like when, even with our kids okay, who you know, one of our kids is a gen z, the other ones, the other ones, are gen alpha. You know so they're, you know they're on both sides of that coin there. But when you really start stopping and you look at the difference between even our kids, right right, their entire world is digital.
Speaker 2:Correct.
Speaker 1:Like.
Speaker 2:They can work from home, they can go to school from home. Everything on the internet, they communicate, they have friend groups, literally everything.
Speaker 1:Order their food. What we, as millennials, used to do by going to the mall or pizza hut or little league or you know those things. They don't do that anymore. In fact, I would argue, like, and and there's a lot of different research out there, like when you look at the malls, and there's a lot of different research that shows the the decline of the american mall is due to, like, the online shopping, you know, amazon and and stuff like that, and, and I'm sure there, there, that is a factor.
Speaker 1:The other factor is, though, is the mall used to be the social club right the mall used to be where you would go, hang out with everyone and see everyone and all of that. That has all been replaced with digital community. Now, right, I mean, the Bible clearly states we're made in the image of God and we are made to do community with one another. You're never going to get rid of community, but how that community interacts is vastly different. So, if we're looking at this and we're going, okay, are there more pedophiles today than there were when we were younger? Or are we just more aware of it because the information is more readily available than when we were younger?
Speaker 2:I think we're more aware of it. I do think there are more deviancies because of the internet.
Speaker 1:And that was where I was going to say I mean it goes back to that Because now you have this anonymity, anonymity.
Speaker 2:Anonymity A where I was going to say.
Speaker 1:I mean, it goes back to that, because now you have this anonymity anonymity a minute me me, a mini me, Yep. Now you have this anonymity where anonymity these things. These things can really come to light now. These things can you can fester in your deviance in your living room.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:And if anyone knows? Anything about addiction.
Speaker 2:You're just feeding it.
Speaker 1:Right and eventually that's not going to be enough to feed it. They say, feed the beast, and then you're going to have to go up one more level, yep, and that's where you know. And it's funny, like when you look at that like that, because because again, that's science catching up to the bible, because james goes every man is tempted by the desires of his own heart and desires, when unchecked, you know, lead to death or a sin and then sin when fully grown leads to death right again.
Speaker 2:Nothing new under the sun, it's just how it looks, right, how you get there and so we we've just allowed our children now to enter into this digital world.
Speaker 1:And, yeah, I get it. There are a lot of parents out there that think they're real savvy and, oh, I got a block on this and I got this and this.
Speaker 2:You're not that savvy.
Speaker 1:Well, not even. Are you not just that savvy? Your kids are way more savvy.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah.
Speaker 1:Like our generation, we invented the internet right our kids our kids can run circles around and definitely debbie yep, but even me, like jt, a lot of times it's like oh well, daddy, I know, like blah blah, blah, blah, you, you know I, all I have to do is connect to this and then connect to that, and then I can, you know, go through. Like he was telling me how there are kids in school who, like, would connect to outside websites that were allowed in the school, but from that website you could browse other websites right that were not allowed under the blocks right and but to the, the school.
Speaker 1:It looked like you were just like um, you know they have no idea joanne fabrics or something right and I.
Speaker 1:So if you don't think that your kids are savvy enough to work around all of that, they are wrong, and the problem is is we step back and we give unbridled access. I'm not against technology. I'm not against the internet. There, there are good things that come from it. Right, you are listening to this podcast right now, wherever you are, because of things like the internet, so there are good things for it. Absolutely. Technology in and of itself is neutral.
Speaker 2:Right. But on the flip side I mean both of us got our bachelor's and master's degrees on the internet.
Speaker 1:But on the flip side, unbridled use of technology is what is hurting your kids right now. The unchecked, unmonitored right and we do not have the same passion of going after the internet as we do of going after these books right and school libraries and again, anyone just chiming in the books should be banned.
Speaker 2:They are horrible books maybe this ain't live. They can't just be chiming in right now if they just walked in and they're like someone's listened and they're walking in. Books should be banned. They are horrible books, but this ain't live they can't just be chiming in right now.
Speaker 1:If they just walked in and they're like someone's listening and they're walking in, I'm just saying it ain't a live program, whatever. But when we look digitally, you know there's a lot of things that I need. Like, if you're sitting here and going, how does the internet affect my family Up? First, it affects your mental health 100, especially in children. There's a reason why, like here in florida I can't remember if it was here in florida or it was nationwide. Anyway, I know here in florida it's illegal.
Speaker 2:You know you have to be 16 or older to have certain social medias except when parents are allowing their kids to do it by letting them lie about their age.
Speaker 1:I understand that, but social media has been linked to an increase in anxiety, depression and low self-esteem, particularly due to comparisons with others' idealized online portrayals.
Speaker 2:Is that for teens or in general?
Speaker 1:Just in general. Cyberbullying and online harassment can also have negative impact on mental well-being. Think about this.
Speaker 3:You are looking at what someone wants you to see from their life.
Speaker 1:You are looking at something that is filtered, that is edited. That is the best moment, Like no one is sitting here and taking a picture of well, not no one, I'm sure you can find it out there, but very few people are sitting here taking raw pictures of hey, my tummy hurts and look what just happened.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:You know what I mean.
Speaker 2:I get what you're saying, yep.
Speaker 1:Like no one's putting up a post. Hey, just got done arguing with my wife Right, hashtag bless night. You know, it's to the point. You know, especially celebrities. Like you know, it's to the point, you know, especially celebrities. Like you know, remember, years ago, bow Wow, I mean rented, you know it took a stock image of a, of whatever, a G five, g six, whatever type of plane it was, and tried to go hey, this is my private plane, did he really? Yes, I didn't know that, like, they have actual, actual places where you can go, like do photo shoots yes, and it makes you look like you're somewhere else, like you're in a private plane, or you're in, you know this high rise, or you know all of these other things and I go.
Speaker 2:They're studios and, but yet you're comparing your real life to that fake life and I mean there are kids that have been cyber bullied and killed themselves, and I mean there's been families torn apart yeah, families torn apart, and for what?
Speaker 1:and I go. So the first thing you have to look at is you don't, you may not realize it, but it has an effect on your mental health, right? Whether you're a parent listening to this, whether you have kids listening to this, whether you're a child listening to this, it really doesn't matter who you are. Social media is warping how you see things.
Speaker 2:And how you interact in situations, because you're trying to live that fake life in real life, because you're trying to take on the characteristics of the people that you're following, and you can see it. I mean and if you're in education, you see it it's like a bunch of little parrots. Yeah, a bunch of little parrots.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:A bunch of like the little girls.
Speaker 1:You don't have to be in education to see it though.
Speaker 2:I know, but we get to see it. And when you see groups of 10, 15 girls. They're all acting and doing the same thing. The same stupid TikTok dance Same stupid TikTok dances and songs and all the things, because everybody is looking at the same thing you had to give me a second.
Speaker 1:I saw that I had a mouthful of water.
Speaker 2:Caught him drinking water. But it just it's a very dangerous place to be because your child's brain is still forming and there are different stages that their brain forms in and it's literally rewiring their brain, their thought patterns, their science behind it.
Speaker 1:I mean and I agree with everything you're saying. I just don't want to limit the focus to just children. Children, because it's the same thing with adults like you not you personally, but like adults, like every time someone likes one of your posts you get a dopamine hit. And there are people who are literally developing an addiction and they're posting 10, 15 times, you know, a day trying to get this dopamine hit, trying to figure out this, and then the other thing you got to think about, too, is you're letting an AI algorithm dictate how you not how you feel Well, yeah, how you feel, but how you view the world, Because it's job like.
Speaker 1:Just take YouTube, for instance. I love YouTube. Yep, Like I could waste hours on YouTube if I'm not like careful and disciplined. Right. But what we have to understand is the reason I can waste hours on YouTube is because it has an algorithm that goes hey, this person watching this account. If we keep feeding them videos that are similar to this, then they will still stay here, and that's their goal. Right.
Speaker 1:Whether it's Instagram or TikTok or X or whatever YouTube, it doesn't matter. The goal of the program is to get you to stay there right, because they're they're ultimately trying to get your attention.
Speaker 2:I mean, there are grown adults that are late to work. They miss appointments because they're so they call into work scrolling on social media looking for that next thing to make them feel good yeah, so I mean, your mental health is just being jacked by this computer. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Another way physically, even if you want to look at it. Physically, excessive screen time can lead to sleep disturbance, poor sleep habit and decreased physical activity, contributing to weight gain and other health problems. You know why? Because you're not moving anymore.
Speaker 2:I don't know what it's called, but it's something that has to do with your neck. There are youth and grown adults that have when they're getting hunchbacked. Yeah, they're getting hunchbacked and their neck. They're young and they're having to go to the doctor and get therapy and physical therapy because they're so busy, Scrouched down playing video games and their thumbs are getting jammed.
Speaker 1:They're getting arthritis, injuries, have like shot up.
Speaker 2:I go. That's I mean when you were growing up playing football, that was unheard of stuff like that to happen to people.
Speaker 1:Right, and I mean, we had video games. It's not like you know, we're from the dark ages, I mean, and and yeah, I'm sure if you were to sit down and go, okay, but PS2 compared to PS5. Yeah, you're, you're right, ps5 looks a lot better. More realistic. It's faster, the you know you can connect, you know online and everything Like I get all of that but understand like I didn't know any better. So PS2 at the time was phenomenal.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but you still had that same.
Speaker 1:But what I'm saying is it had that same allure because you didn't know any different than what. That was right. But again and and yeah, there were times where, hey, you know, this game came, ace combat came out, or so calm, or you know one of those games that you like to play and and sure you know you would spend time playing that game, but you always had it in perspective.
Speaker 2:You're like all right enough, I got to go Right, Whatever the case may be.
Speaker 1:You weren't up till three, four o'clock in the morning.
Speaker 2:And I think what parents don't realize, adults don't realize. You're not like you said, it's not just about teens. If you stop your teen or your child whatever, from spending that much time on there and then you go outside and do something as a family where you sit down together like you're gonna bring, you're gonna start healing parts of your family you didn't realize right we're broken if you get outside and go fish like get on a boat.
Speaker 2:Josh has a ton of fishing videos on mission scent youtube because that's what we do. Yeah, we're a water family.
Speaker 1:Right, you know. And then the other funny thing with this is, too social media was meant to spur social interaction. However, all research well, not all, but most research shows it actually leads to social isolation. Depression and anxiety and stress, and yeah, it replaces face-to-face interactions and healthy social skills in development.
Speaker 2:And people meet on social media, I mean a lot like us, like we were crazy in chat rooms back in the day. I don't even know what we were thinking then. But it's different now because I mean you're meeting people in real time and I mean you can get yourself in a dangerous situation adult or a child well, not that is 100 true and accurate, but not even just that.
Speaker 1:Like there's something to be said, like I would rather I hate talking on the phone, like absolutely hate talking on the phone. If it's going to be longer than like a minute or two that we need to converse, I would rather you go. Hey, can we go meet?
Speaker 1:you know for some tea and iced tea and a coffee right, something along those lines, you know, and then we, we can sit and talk face to face, right, right. Because number one, 80% of all communication is nonverbal. So it's how you look, it's the facial expressions you give, it's your body language, right? It's like all of this other stuff that goes into communication, it's not simply just the words.
Speaker 1:That's why text messages get messed up all the time well, you can't read, tone you can't read you just, you have no idea and and so like, honestly sit and talk to a person who spends the majority of their time online. You know they they lack a lot of times. They lack the ability to have a conversation. They lack the ability to know what's socially acceptable and not a they can't because again when you're online oh, you're free.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you can be whoever you want, right, because?
Speaker 1:I don't even. You don't even really know who I am, right, right, but when you're in person that's different. You know there are lines and boundaries. You know jt can be hot when he's sitting here on rainbow six and and talking about how he's this a master, you know, assassin, but man, you put him in a real life situation where the bullets are coming back at him holy and you don't different story yeah you don't get a respawn
Speaker 1:mm-hmm that's a completely different scenario, right? Yeah? Them Holy and you don't A whole different story, yeah, you don't get to respond. That's a completely different scenario, right? Yeah? Another thing we need to look at is the addictive nature of social media. It can lead to excessive use and interfering with other aspects of your life, according to Granite Hills hospital, like there are literally people who are putting their real life on hold so that they can actually live this fake life right, and all I can think of is the episode in the office where dwight creates a second life account, you know, and jim's monitoring them, yes, and then dwight creates a second second life for the second life right you know and and I like that's what we see right People that are just removing themselves further and further away from reality.
Speaker 1:Right. Because of whatever reason, right, I don't like, my reality I don't like. And the bigger issue there would actually be Just being discontent. Well, do something about your reality, right? Don't just escape. Right, and that's really what it is is. You're trying to escape. Right, don't just escape right into and? And that's really what it is is.
Speaker 2:You're trying to escape, right, don't just escape into this well then you pair you and a lot of yeah do the hard word right because you play the compare game right, whether it's um, we'll look at what their kids are doing. My kids aren't doing that. We'll look at their spouse my spouse's crappy doesn't do anything like that. You know, like stuff like that.
Speaker 1:So you get into a situation where you're going I'm jealous, or and instead of stopping and going, hey, I need to do something different well, sometimes what they're doing is what they're doing.
Speaker 2:Different is they're totally uprooting their family and blowing up their life because they think they want. They want what that person.
Speaker 1:Right and you don't realize what that person has because you're not in that person's shoes.
Speaker 2:Right and their life might be great, but they also might work really really, really, really hard in it.
Speaker 1:Well, even like, if you going back to fishing YouTubers, right Like, um, you know, bama Beach Bum is is one of the channels that that I'm subscribed with and you know, over the past like six, seven months, you know he's he's done videos talking about how, like even videos are. Are they're changing how people consume or is what is changing?
Speaker 2:well, him and who else? Who else was talking about chuds somebody else was talking about the, yeah, but that's not a fishing channel though. Oh um barbecue but where?
Speaker 1:yeah, but where people are no longer consuming what they call long form content. You know anything that's over. You know 10, 15 minutes, that's that's long form content quick, fast and hurry, and it's impacting.
Speaker 2:Think about watching a movie. Can you sit down, watch a movie without at all picking up your phone?
Speaker 1:Can I yes?
Speaker 2:Not you in general, oh. People in general.
Speaker 1:But think about like even with your not supposed to spend more than you know, four minutes on any given like activity or topic without changing something, because kids, they lose focus, attention span isn't long enough to to stay with that and I go. That's a problem.
Speaker 2:Even, um, even with um, working with little kids, like that's, that's, you know they, they tell you like you have to make it, even in a conversation, like you have to quickly, one, two, three, move on one, two, three, but again you think of things like kahoot or quizlet or you know all these different things and and they're cool, like they're good to.
Speaker 1:You know tools, but what it is is is it's sitting here going. We have to present the same information in a different way in the way you're used to consuming information.
Speaker 1:And since everything is digital, if I hand you a book or a paper and pencil, you know, it's even even doing that. Cause we, you know, we tried to do that this year, you know, because electronics were just too much for some of the kids, right, and so we went hey, look, we're just going to go paper and pencil, you know, and it was like okay. But then you, you, you don't even realize how much you use the internet. Because then it's like okay, you're gonna do a research project it's like well well, how are they gonna research?
Speaker 2:if they're not electronics, because we don't have 64 encyclopedia botanicas right? I mean we do, but they're not up to date and they're at my mom's storage, or you know, but but yeah, the same thing.
Speaker 1:Like, yeah, you know, and that's what Bama was saying. He was like you know, it's if you want to make, if you want to have a following. Now, it's all about short form content. You know shorts reels, you know those kinds of things, stories, those kinds of things, and it's like. But what we don't realize is that's what we're training our brains to.
Speaker 1:Right you want to know why you and your wife can't sit down and work out your problems? Because you've trained your brain to go. You are only allowed to think in 30 second increments right think about it like that's why you tune people out think about it, I can remember our phone number from 25 years ago.
Speaker 2:30 years ago, like I, I could 40732, you know, and it's someone else's phone number, so I'm not gonna say, one of the numbers is still the same numbers but I go, no, no, no, no, that that hasn't been. Are you talking about the computer room?
Speaker 1:yeah, but my mom.
Speaker 2:That hasn't been my mom's phone number, though, for a couple of years now but the one that your mom oh no, you did not what don't do that, especially into the mic so the number your mom has now is the number she had when we started dating she doesn't have that number and hasn't had that in years, but it's someone else's number.
Speaker 1:Now they got rid of the phone. Oh they, all she has is her cell phone. Now they got rid of the phone oh they did. All she has is her cell phone now, oh, but I can still remember that number from 20 years ago.
Speaker 2:Oh wow, Now that I think about it, I guess I haven't called her else.
Speaker 1:No, you haven't. Huh, and I go. But think about that. How many people remember phone numbers anymore?
Speaker 2:Right, yeah, I still remember mine 407-671-0. Well, it doesn't matter, because probably it belongs to somebody else, but you know what I mean.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, we don't remember stuff like that anymore. No, we are actually losing memory because we don't have to remember anything anymore, because you just take an app out, you make a voice memo, you write a note. I can literally tell the different things to give me to be careful with what you're saying set an alarm for the next day, like just tell her to yeah, and that's what I mean, and so we don't have to depend on that anymore. So we lose that ability to do that.
Speaker 2:They don't do spelling tests anymore, like right, there's, but there's certain research behind that, so I'm but what I'm talking about is memorization memorization.
Speaker 1:Think about it right now, and I forget the exact stat. So I'm not going to give the exact stat number. But barna was talking about how many people in america can actually quote verses from the bible, you know, and these are like self-proclaimed christians, these aren't like atheists right and? And why can't we memorize Bible verses? That's true, yeah, because we don't memorize anything anymore, because we don't have to memorize anything anymore, because we have a supercomputer everywhere we go.
Speaker 2:And just imagine if everything shut down electronically. Internet wise I would love it. I'm just saying like the impact it would have on society.
Speaker 1:You got to get closer to the mic, the impact it would have on society.
Speaker 2:I mean, I think people would go stir crazy.
Speaker 1:Well, think about it. How many? How many families? If you know and you you listening, if you do this, let us know. But how many families sit down and eat dinner together?
Speaker 2:Right, and you're not talking about like just, you're not talking about sitting down at a table where everything's set and there's like play sets and stuff like that.
Speaker 1:Why not?
Speaker 2:But like.
Speaker 1:But even if you're eating dinner in the family room with the TV on and you have a show that your family watches, right, like, do you understand the health benefits of that? Do you understand that your kids knowing, okay, okay, there's somewhere safe for me to be, that I can just be me, right, that I don't have to try to live up to the standards of everybody else online, right? Or if you, as a wife, where you're sitting here going okay, like, no, he values me, I don't have to be like that wife right or vice versa, you versa, you know, as a husband.
Speaker 1:Oh no, she values me. I don't have to be like that husband, like the health benefits that go with just sitting down and eating dinner together. Yeah, I think it was four times a night or four times a week.
Speaker 2:Well, it gives the kids a space to have conversations.
Speaker 1:Right, but that's not what we do. Right, right, right, but that's not what we do, right, right. I mean, I've seen, I've seen like kids that can, that can't even walk in a grocery store and the parents are just like here take the phone because it's easier than dealing with you, yep or like quit being lazy or like um, I mean, we've been places and we've had heard conversations where everybody gets their dinner and everyone just goes to a separate room yeah and everyone's having dinner by themselves.
Speaker 2:I mean that creates a space of isolation and loneliness in your child and that's what we're talking about with social isolation, you don't even realize you are creating a a space for them to be unhealthy emotionally they're not going to be able to interact with? How are they going to talk to their spouse or their girlfriend or but that's what I'm talking about.
Speaker 1:Like this goes so much deeper and this is actually it. Like if you were to sit here and look at this, this is public enemy number one. Right here you want to talk about something that is just absolutely destroying the family. It is the and again, I don't want to say it is the internet it's the unbridled, it's the misuse of the internet and like I was sitting here as a mom, I was sitting here thinking about it.
Speaker 2:Think about your kids eating their dinner in their room by themselves. One day, they're going to be out of your house and they're going to be in their own families and then you're going to complain because they never come back and see you.
Speaker 2:Why do you think they would want to come over and have dinner with you when you never had dinner with them to begin with? Right, you're not bringing them back to a memory, you're trying to create something new and they're going to be like. This is not normal, right? Why on earth is my mom or my dad trying to have me over?
Speaker 2:They didn't give a crap when I was there and it 100 and if they marry somebody whose family was the exact opposite, that did sit down and have dinner, I mean they're going to see a whole different way of life.
Speaker 1:You're you're building the future and but seeing, that's what I think you know, because you see people talk about, oh, breaking generational curses all the time yeah I go. You do realize, in order to break a generational curse, you have to do it different than how it was done for you, right, because a lot of the times, these vicious cycles, we see it's you just did the same thing just in a different way, right, and I go.
Speaker 2:You want different do different Yep Absolutely and don't complain about it.
Speaker 1:You want your family to be stronger, spend time together. Yep, get outside. Yep, get outside, go fishing, go fishing. I'm telling you. You put your family on a boat.
Speaker 2:Guess what you can't do at that point leave and if you don't know how to fish, watch a fishing video hit me up, I'll take you fishing I mean depending on where you live.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, hit me up, you can fly down to florida, I will take you fishing. I will, depending on where you live. Yeah, nope, hit me up, you can fly down to florida, I will take you fishing, I will put you on fish. All of the things, and and and seriously, even we like we go out of town, right, sometimes we'll look for a charter, you know, to go, because I'm not going to take the boat everywhere. We went out on one charter and I was talking to the captain. He was sitting here and going like you know how many times and and these aren't cheap, like we don't charge, we like ours is completely free, but you know, the average is like five hundred dollars for four hours. It's like 125 an hour to go out and fish.
Speaker 2:Wow, oh, yeah, that's right. The four hours yeah, that's right not including a tip.
Speaker 1:You know, when I was talking to this one charter captain, when we were down in the keys and he was telling me like I'd be shocked at how many you know dads and sons, come out and he's like I'm taking the phone away from the child because I'm like your dad paid a lot of money for you guys to be here.
Speaker 1:You're gonna fish while you're here, right you get back on the phone when you get back on land. That that's fine. That's between you and your dad. But while you're here, this is what you're going to do, right, and he's like man. You would be shocked at how many um times the kid would wind up thanking them.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:Because he had such a good time, because he got to experience something that he doesn't normally experience, and I go and that's really that's what it is. Right, creating new experiences, that memories and you know, and, and those things turn into skills, real memories, not ones that they see on the internet right and those things turn into skills.
Speaker 1:Like, if you take fishing, like you know you may think it's only fishing, but it's time you're spending with your child, right, it's teaching them one to be self-sufficient. You know, jt, when, when he was little, remember like we would go out fishing and you know I went, if you want fish, he was scared to death to touch shrimp To shrimp.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they are kind of scary when you first start touching them, so I give them that.
Speaker 1:But you know, and I told him, like, if you want, if you want to fish, you're going to get your shrimp out.
Speaker 2:Right. And then there was one particular instance where he did not want to.
Speaker 1:I'm listening.
Speaker 2:There was something that hold on, threw me off um, where he didn't want to touch the shrimp. He didn't want to touch the shrimp and I mean he was screaming and crying and and josh said this is it?
Speaker 2:you either touch that shrimp and put it on your hook or you're not going fishing again right and he screamed and he cried and he picked up the shrimp and he put it on his hook and then he threw the line in and caught a fish and then it's been on ever since and then all of a sudden went oh, I can do things that scare me.
Speaker 1:Yep, see, understanding like you're not gonna be ruled by fear, which is a different podcast, but right, you know what I mean right so I go. Here's the thing start, start with a day, start with screen time. Our kids have screen time on their electronics, not because of any other reason, but I go.
Speaker 2:You're still a child and you still need to have some restraint.
Speaker 1:Yes, because you're just not there yet and I know you won't have the restraint Right.
Speaker 2:And you'll be there eventually.
Speaker 1:But if no one's showing you and teaching you right, why would you ever? So this week, start with a day just go like and I go, I get it. I might be idealistic going, hey, we're not going to have electronics on sunday or whatever the case may be.
Speaker 1:For me it's easy right, because for the most part I don't care. The only time I really will play on my phone is in the bathroom, and that's only because it's. We have found it is now disgusting to have magazines in the bathroom but okay, that's a different podcast but not even a podcast.
Speaker 1:We don't even talk about that but I go set time apart and just go a five to seven every day. We're not, no're not, no electronics Right? Hey, we're going to eat dinner. No electronics. Hey, you know, we're going to take a walk after dinner.
Speaker 2:No electronics and you can have on your phone. We're only certain, is that JT? We're only certain people can text you at certain times. I mean, you can set it up that way. So do you have anything else?
Speaker 1:I do not. So, at the risk of sounding like a hypocrite, if you listen this far, I'm assuming electronics don't have a rule over your life. Send this to someone you know. Share it with them they may need it if they're going to be on their electronic anyway have them learn something at least have them, you know, do so in a way that's going to bring up their family I agree and bring glory to jesus yep so until next time, we love you.
Speaker 1:We think you can always follow us at mission sentorg mission sentorg um or on facebook and instagram mission sent, mission said, you know again. If you're going to spend time on there anyway, might as well do something productive follow us and share us and help us spread the good news. So until next time, we love you, we thank you and we can't do this without you.
Speaker 2:Bye guys, bye guys bye guys.
