Media Fast

After months of preparation, and over 3 years of dating, Claire and I are finally married! It's hard to believe - and I'm so excited for years ahead of working toward loving Claire more than myself and in the process growing closer to God.

I read something in the book "Intended for Pleasure" in preparation for marriage that got me thinking, and helped me make a radical decision that I think will be great for me in our first year of marriage. The book suggested taking a one-year fast from TV, or some other media that takes up a lot of your free time, during the first year of marriage. I've never watched much TV, but in reading this I knew right away that the Internet was a similar distraction in my life. For most of my recent life I've loved "wasting time" on the Internet. Not necessarily with bad things, but I could spend hours on sports and news sites, or Wikipedia. It's about time I take a fast from some of these things. For now I'm limiting all my Internet to Gmail, Facebook and Twitter (and, when I want to post something, Blogger).

So far it hasn't been easy, but I think it will be very good for me for several reasons. First, it will help guard me from temptation - which is ALL OVER the Internet and a huge danger, especially for males. Secondly, it will likely give me a lot more "free time," with which I will hopefully put to loving, serving and building my relationship with my wife. And lastly, I think it will help me put things in perspective. This past year I have placed too high an importance on things like sports and politics - not bad things in and of themselves, but things that have been "crowding out" my relationship with God (and, potentially, my relationship with Claire). Things like quiet time and fervent prayer have become things I do only when I "don't have anything else to do," which has become rarer because of "wasted time." I need more of God and less of distractions.

What are your distractions? What are the things from which God may be asking you to fast?