Daily Devotional

I will set before my eyes no vile thing. Ps. 101:3, NIV.

The following paraphrase of Psalm 23 made me stop and think. Just how healthy is TV viewing?
 
The TV is my shepherd,
I shall want more.
It makes me lie down on the sofa.
It leads me away from the faith.
It destroys my soul.
It leads me in the path of sex and violence for the sponsor's sake.
Yea, though I walk in the shadow of Christian responsibilities, there will be no interruption, for the TV is with me.
Its cable and remote control, they comfort me.
It prepares a commercial for me in the presence of my worldliness.
It anoints my head with humanism and consumerism, my coveting runneth over.
Surely, laziness and ignorance shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house watching TV forever.
 —Author Unknown
 
 Nancy Larric, a college professor and author, after reviewing the research on how television affects people, identified 10 characteristics of children who watch TV.

1. Short attention spans.
2. Thriving on noise, strife, and confusion.
3. Very worldly in their outlook and attitudes.
4. Little respect for adults (TV so often portrays them as lawbreakers, schemers, swindlers, sexual perverts, drug pushers, and low-IQ females).
5. Regarding of school as irrelevant and as punishment.
6. Filled with hostility or fear and are prone to settle things with violence.
7. Not getting enough sleep, and what they do get being of poor quality.
8. Prone to anti-interpersonal relationship values.
9. Unwilling to cooperate with others.
10. Antidemocratic and prejudiced against minorities.

For the sake of your children's health—and yours—don't make the TV your shepherd. Make the Lord your shepherd, and live a healthy lifestyle.

Used by permission of Health Ministries, North American Division of Seventh-day Adventists.