 I'm a Christian and I have an addiction. I honestly really didn't think it was too big of a deal until I hadn't been sleeping very well, like I had perpetual bags under my eyes. And then it started taking my attention away from things that are much more important. I wasn't as focused when I needed to do work. I was constantly concerned with getting that next hit. Identifying the issue wasn't that hard. I could see what it was doing to me. The issue is, is that this addiction is acceptable. When I brought it up to different people, they were like, yeah, me too. Yeah, I've been there. Oh yeah, I know how that is. And this just kind of reaffirmed the idea that maybe I actually didn't have a problem. The truth is, I'm addicted to my phone. Let me just start at the beginning. When I was 12 years old, I got my first iPod. I used it to watch YouTube videos and listen to all sorts of podcasts. In terms of social media, I really didn't have any with the exception of Twitter. I only had Twitter because my older brother was on Twitter and I just decided to get it and follow all my favorite preachers and teachers. And that's what I did. In those early years, I would spend hours and hours listening to podcasts. I was homeschooled, so I had that flexibility. But it really never got in the way of my daily life. I'd say my relationship with technology at that point was pretty healthy. The problem really started when I downloaded social media. You see, in my teenage years, I began to post more consistently on social media, and it was a constant escape from the boredom I experienced on a daily basis. Also, when my social media platform began to grow, it gave me a constant hit of dompavine and affirmation. That stuff is so addicting, and you just keep coming back for more. In terms of social media, there's a huge tension in my life. One side of me says, I just need to be done with social media entirely, deleted it all, leave it, and my life will be so much better. And then there's this other side of me that sees this direct calling from God to be a light on social media, to be able to post and direct people to see Jesus and understand the gospel. That's what I'm passionate about. Maybe one day my mission on social media will be complete, and I'll just delete everything, and I'll move to a cabin somewhere and never think about Twitter or Instagram or YouTube ever again. But for now, it's a balance, you know? It's like, hey, I want to be doing this, but also I need to have some time to disconnect from it. Ideally, I would consume an intentional way, focusing on consuming content that's just going to inspire me or give me some ideas for content. But these days, my phone and social media just turn into a gap filler. I have five minutes here or 10 minutes here, or footage is uploading so I can scroll TikTok for a little bit, or I'm waiting for my toast in the toaster so I can figure out what's going on on Twitter. It's like just fills the emptiness. Now, maybe calling it an addiction is a little bit extreme, but at least in my mind, I call it an addiction because if I were to stop right here and right now, it would be uncomfortable and maybe even a little bit painful. But here's the deal. I don't think as Christians we should be slaves to anything. And so I'm preaching to myself in this. It's like, hey, you can't be held captive by anything in this world. You are alive to Christ. You are His servant. You are working on His mission. You shouldn't let these things in this world distract you from the purpose that God has given you. My affection and attention should be towards Christ and His calling on my life. So with all that being said, what am I going to do about this dang phone? I can't just throw it out as much as I would like to. I need to use it. So here are just a couple of things that I'm going to do. So usually I would have no problem with watching a YouTube video in bed or listening to a podcast or even scrolling TikTok just before I fall asleep or even until I fall asleep if you can believe it. That's how bad this has gotten. But I'm not going to do that anymore. Now instead, before I go to bed, I'm going to leave my phone outside my bedroom and instead of using my alarm on my phone that I would usually use, I actually have a Google Home or Google Nest in my room that I'm just going to tell to wake me up at seven or whatever. Okay, Google setting an alarm for 7 a.m. every morning. Every day at 7 a.m. Now I got to be honest, this is actually going to be really challenging for me because I've grown up my whole life pretty much. My teenage years, I've been watching or listening to something right before I go to bed. I like it. It distracts me. It keeps me from thinking too much or being uncomfortable in my own thoughts. And I can recognize now that that's not good, that it's an escape that actually is not very healthy. You know, I should be able to process and think about feelings that I might find uncomfortable. So the second problem and how I'm going to fix it is, I tend to just use my phone in terms of gap filling like I talked about earlier. Instead, when I have a little bit of a break between different activities or work or whatever else, I'm just going to sit or I'm going to read. And I have a couple of different books that I have ready. Yes, that is the full Chronicles of Narnia series. Got to pull out the big guns for this one, baby. Now all that's left to do is do it. So let's do it. Okay, okay, okay. I figured it out. I figured it out. Okay, so the whole thing about leaving your phone outside your room before you go to bed, that is awesome, man. I should have been doing that this whole time. I sleep so much better. I just turn on, this sounds a little bit weird, but I turn on brown noise on my Google Nest. And it's kind of like white noise. Except it sounds a little bit different. I'll play you a little clip here. It's pretty good. You know, play behind me here. You know, it's soothing. I'm ready to go to bed. Anyway, that's great. I really like that. I don't look at my phone until I take a shower, do some push-ups. I feel so refreshed. Awesome. The challenge is the whole thing about not filling the other gaps of my day with my phone. It's a little bit more challenging because it's not as black and white. So what I've tried to do is limit the types of apps that I'm using at different times of the day, having like a section of three hours throughout the day that I'm not even touching my phone. And that's really helped. Also, filling my time with more reading, even if it's just for short periods of time. Lying the witch in the wardrobe is great because the chapters are so short. Okay, back to the studio for closing thoughts. So was I successful? Well, only time will tell, but I'm done making excuses for myself in this. I just think how much more productive can I be if I don't have this hindering me as much, and also how much more real rest and enjoyment of people around me and being more intentional about going out and doing things and being less hung on to my phone. That can only benefit my life more and help me focus on the things that really matter. Well, I hope you guys enjoyed this video and got something from it. If you enjoyed this video, subscribe because I'm putting out new content all the time. I will see you next time.