New Year Resolutions: What's your BAE?

 Go not after other gods to serve them, 

and to worship them, 

and provoke me not to anger 

with the works of your hands" 

(Jeremiah 25:4-7)

Do these pictures look familiar? 

In almost any public place these days, you see people looking at their phones...

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 Out with friends?

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 Out with family?

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 Or even at home?

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The New Testament records that when the apostles asked Jesus what the greatest commandment was He said, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God." We can also get a clue to the most important commandment by what God chose to list as the FIRST of the Ten Commandments. It is a timeless guideline about our proper relationship to God. "Thou shalt have no other Gods before me."  

"Whatever thing a man sets his heart and his trust in most is his god; 
and if his god doesn’t also happen to be the true and living God of Israel, 
that man is laboring in idolatry."
-Spencer W. Kimball

Technology is AMAZING! A gift in our lives... or a curse depending on how we use it... or allow it to "use" us. According to Pres. Kimball's quote above, are we "laboring in idolatry" by "worshipping" our devices during our idle time? A study by Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers found the average cell phone user actually checks their phone up to 150 times per day. In their annual Internet Trends report carried out in May 2017, the researchers narrowed the results down. It found that people check their phones, on average, 23 times a day for messaging, 22 times for voice calls and 18 times to get the time. Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2449632

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An electronic device can open a window on the world. We can find invitations for good and for evil, or simply an invitation for comparison -  creating a sense of dissatisfaction with our life and a longing for the life people post about? 
Without electricity, a cell phone or iPad is just a piece of lifeless plastic that "waxes old" and become obsolete soon. Just like the idols of the Old Testament, they cannot hear or see and have no power. 





How do we do that? 
How do we keep ourselves from provoking God to anger 
and SHOW our love for God with our actions, not just words? 

There is a currently popular term 
"BAE"
 It means Before Anyone Else

For me, it means a commitment to read my scriptures BEFORE ANYTHING ELSE on my phone when I check it in the morning. It means to constantly redirect my thoughts to Jesus Christ and express gratitude for His gift of the Atonement and repentance. It means reminding myself to put my phone down when I'm with people, to look at them and enjoy the precious time we have together. It's a difficult balancing act for me when I'm with my grandchildren because I also want to take pictures to record the time to enjoy later when I'm not with them. The New Year seems like a good time to recommit to reconnect as often as possible with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. 

BEFORE ANYTHING ELSE....

"For where your treasure is... 
there shall your heart be also."
Luke 12:34 and Matthew 6:21

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Click here to listen to "Strangely Dim" by Francesca Battistelli

I don't know why

I got a front row seat

To the longest wait

And I just can't see

Past the things I pray

Today

But when I fix my eyes 

on all that You are

Then every doubt I feel 

Deep in my heart

Grows strangely dim

...

I don't know, I don't know

What tomorrow may hold

But I know, but I know

That You're holding it all....