What’s your plan for tech when family comes to town?
There’s a good chance someone in your life, maybe even someone you’ll see for Christmas, has a different tech standard than you and your family. So what can you do?
First, make sure you’ve listened to last week’s episode about making tech safe at home! 🤗
Remember that you’re not scared of tech: Your boundaries come from hope for your kiddos. You want them to become all they are made to be!
So ask:
- Is it safe (Drool Tech, Browser, App, Accountable)
- Does it mean family expectations (Phil. 4:8 – content)
- Does it line up with my child’s purpose and potential (Gal. 5:22—the fruit)
Then, take these three steps to ensure tech is a benefit for all this season:
1. Be open. Bring up your concern, your expectations for your child, and ask for suggestions on how it could be handled.
2. Be gracious. Focus on the problems, not the people: We don’t let our kids play games (at all, very long, rated T or higher…)
3. Be focused. Your experience and solutions.
Recommended Resources:
Transcription:
Purposely. Your life. God’s purpose. Listen at onpurposely.com.
Hello everyone and welcome to the Gospel Tech podcast. My name is Nathan Sutherland and this podcast is dedicated to helping families love God and use tech. Today we are continuing our conversation about healthy tech. Last week we talked about how can we ensure that tech stays safe over this Christmas holiday that we’re heading into.
And now it’s gonna be what do we do when our family visits? What happens when those cousins come over? What happens when aunt and uncle come over and all the other new family members come into your life that may not have your same expectations, may not have gone through the same tech journey you’ve got and may be in unhealthy places with their technology.
What happens when they walk into your house or when you know you’re going to their house and you know that this is going to be a situation you run into? How can we prepare ourselves, not to convince them that we’re right on technology or to make this some kind of a I dunno, line in the sand that [00:01:00] we need to fight about cuz who needs one more thing to fight about over holidays with the family.
But really how can this be an opportunity for us to get a tech win with our kids? For us to reemphasize where we stand and why we stand there and to really remind ourselves that this isn’t something we look forward to with trepidation or fear or even as one more roadblock for relationship. But instead, it’s an opportunity to build relationship with our kids to extend this conversation to our families, cuz this is a way the gospel moves forward even if families don’t believe the gospel.
This is a loving, intentional conversation that translates across faith boundaries. It translates across cuz it addresses our children and it addresses their hearts. And it’s something that every loving parent is concerned about, even if they don’t have the words to express it, or even the knowledge to know why they’re concerned or what should be concerned about.
So that is really the bedrock of today’s conversation, is what do we do when family visits or when we visit family and how can we have this conversation about safe tech in a way that’s meaningful and intentional helpful, and then also safe for our children? Because at the end of the [00:02:00] day, we’re parenting our kids outta the hope we have for them in the gospel.
So that’s where we start, and then we extend it to the people around us. So with no further ado, let’s get this conversation started.
Welcome to the Gospel Tech Podcast, a resource for parents who feel overwhelmed and outpaced as they raise healthy youth in a tech world as an educator, parent and tech user, I want to equip parents with the tools, resources, and confidence they need to raise kids who love God and use tech.
Thank you to everyone for making this podcast possible. Thank you for listening. Thank you for sharing. Thank you for subscribing. Thanks for listening because you listening is the reason that we make this podcast. The reason I get up each week to make this resource is because I hear about it helping families.
So thank you for listening and allowing this message to be an encouragement to you and allowing I guess me [00:03:00] to speak into the tech aspect of your parenting. It’s something I love to do and it’s so encouraging, that I’m allowed into people’s lives and ears and car drives with their families and everything else.
So thanks for listening. Thank you for sharing, for telling other people about it. Cause that is the highest compliment. That’s also how we grow. That’s how I’m getting speaking jobs. That’s how I’m getting invited into churches and schools. That’s how more listeners are finding out is by your sharing.
And one of the ways you can share is by subscribing so you don’t miss any new content and rating and reviewing. And that idea being when you rate outta five stars, which I asked that it would be a five star review because I’m trying to make five star content here. When you rate it outta five stars it shows up higher on people’s searches when they’re looking for parenting content or tech content or gospel content, we’re more likely to pop up. And when you review meaning you leave a one or two sentence, just quick statement of how has this helped you? Why is this five stars for you? It lets people know what kind of people are enjoying it because I don’t know about you, but every once in a while something gets great [00:04:00] reviews and you start it, whether it’s a podcast or a show or whatever, , and you’re like, oh this is actually terrible.
I should have figured out who was, I run this a lot with board games. I’ll pick up a board game everyone’s like this is amazing. But I didn’t look at who was saying it was amazing and why they’re like, it’s amazing cuz it takes 12 hours to play. I’m like, oh, I should have checked that. So that’s what you leaving a review helps people then see why people like it and they can align with whether that’s something they actually wanna put their time and their effort into.
So thank you for doing all of that. And I would just say, if it’s not a five star review, would you please send me an email so I can hear what I can improve to make this five star content. It’s [email protected]. You could also just send any questions you’ve got things that you like. I also receive positive feedback.
I don’t think I’ve ever said that before, but I do take it. It’s always encouraging and helpful, so thank you guys for being a part of this. I also wanna say here to check out our partners instead of running them individual ads right now, I’m just gonna let you know the three of ’em because we have Lome who’s amazing and helps us set intentional family priorities.
If you go. [00:05:00] withlome.com, they have an amazing family. It’s basically a family calendar platform where you can get everything from pining ideas for family activities, to planning out your meals, to basically putting the first things first with your family. Gab Wireless, which is an amazing dumb phone. Please check out Gab Wireless.
And in the comments, there’s a little promo code that’ll give you 10% off and some other cool stuff. But Gab Wireless is an amazing dumb phone. And Bark is how you build a hedge around your devices like we talked about last week. So for today’s conversation, let’s quickly reframe last week’s conversation.
First, we talked about building that hedge around our Wi-Fi and our devices. Then we talked about how to have clear expectations with content, time and place for our technology. And finally it was how can we be present? Cuz last week’s conversation was all talking about in the holiday season for Thanksgiving and now heading into Christmas, how do we make sure that tech remains in a healthy spot. If we’ve got a good rhythm in the school season, we’re homeschooling or we’re sending our kids off to school, that can all [00:06:00] shift when our kids are just home, like here in the northwest, we’ve had multiple snow days, all in a row. So our kids were home for Thanksgiving, which was cool, but we had ’em home for seven straight days and then we had ’em home for two more and now it’s gonna be a weekend and then it’s right, like it’s a lot of time and kids get stir crazy.
And the weather out here in Washington State can be awful. So you can’t always just send your kid, I mean you can, but it doesn’t always end well. You can just send them outside. But with this idea, how can we keep it safe? How can we keep it healthy? That’s where we were headed. So we had those three. This week I want to talk about how do we deal with the tech standards when they’re different with our visiting.
Which was confusing in the title because I was like, I wanna say, dealing with tech and family over Christmas oh, that was almost exactly what I said last week, but the other family, extended family. So this scenario was posed to me by a friend. He said, I’ve got my brother. He’s bringing us over. My parents are gonna be there, his in-laws are gonna be there.
We’re doing a big family get together, we’re going over to their house. It’s gonna be an overnight thing. [00:07:00] When we go, we know that he has three kids. They get along fine with our kids, but they’re older. So his kids range from eight to 16. My kids range in this friend’s age four to ten. So 16 is now how old the house is in terms of technology and the 16 year olds into stuff that I don’t let my 10 year old be into.
So how do we handle that situation? It’s not that they’re grotesquely off. It’s just they’re in a different spot. And I, it was a great question because sometimes they are really far off. Like they’re not Christians. They don’t have the same standard for their tech. That’s the thing. Sometimes they are Christians and they just have a different way of going about it, like they just use more tech.
This happens a lot in our family because I tend to pump the brakes a lot on the tech. I’m looking always for another way to have fun because, I think in a short answer, tech can be just really simple, fun. And I think it’s really important sometimes to work for our fun, but that’s a bigger conversation. So anyway the idea being what do we do [00:08:00] in that situation?
So first we need to talk and make sure this entire conversation assumes that we have a standard for our kiddos. So if you have not listened to last week’s conversation, you have to stop here. The rest of today’s conversation makes no sense unless you’ve heard last week. You have to know how to make a hedge.
You have to talk to your kid about clear expectations for time, place, and content, and you have to know what it means to be actively present in your child’s tech use. Without those three things you’re trying to now superimpose the standard you wish you had on someone else’s life. And that’s just not cool, man.
So go back to last week. Make sure that’s something you have least discussed with your child, because from that standard, you need to remember why we’re gonna have this conversation at all. All you’re walking into a family member’s house or into someone you care about’s house. You’ve been invited there for Christmas holidays and you know that you guys don’t align exactly.
So the first thing we have to do is remember that you’re not acting out of fear. You’re not scared of just what could be out there in the boogeyman of technology, getting your [00:09:00] kid and somehow, magically making them bad. That’s not what we’re doing here. You’re also not standing on your yard or out in your yard, shouting get off my lawn about kids these days. And the technology had back in my day, tiddlywinks. Instead, you have a hope for your child set in the gospel. And your hope, that you’re parenting your child towards the reason you will set up some boundaries around technology, the reason we’re going to initiate this conversation intentionally, upfront, lovingly, no matter where they’re coming from, because this isn’t about what you’re trying to fix in them.
This is about your family and you setting a clear standard for your expectations is because, one, you’re gonna ensure that your tech is safe. You’re gonna know if it’s drool tech or tool tech. You’re gonna know if it has browsers. You’re gonna know if it adds apps. You’re gonna know if it’s accountable, right?
You’re gonna make sure all the tech your child uses is that thing. Then you’re gonna make sure that it meets your family expectations. Philippians 4:8 is what we talk about a lot, especially in terms of content, because [00:10:00] you wanna make sure that your content is true and that it’s noble and that it’s pure, right?
You wanna make sure that the content is these things. This is now a standard you’re aiming at. You’re not aiming away from all the bad. I don’t want him to play those kinds of no. You want him to play these things. If it’s this stuff, then you’re good. And if it’s not now we have a very clear talking point, right?
We have something we’re aiming towards. We focus on the hope of the gospel, keeping our eyes on Christ. And the third thing is we’re gonna make sure it lines up with our child’s purpose. And while there’s a lot of ways to gauge this, I think the simplest is Galatians 5:22, and we look at the fruits of the spirit.
Does this thing bring out love and joy and peace and patience out of my child, or does it bring up more of the Galatians 5:19- 21, which would have more about dissension and jealousy and envy and strife and things that can come up anger when we play games or when we listen to music, when we watch certain shows.
So we just wanna keep that in mind. So that’s our standard. Now, in light of that, we’re [00:11:00] focusing on that standard because we’re not fixing our kid. We’re not saying I need to make sure my kid never makes a mistake, so never let him around the internet. No, we’re not doing that and we’re not trying to fix the family we’re going towards.
That is nuts is not the time to do it. And really there’s never an appropriate time to try to fix someone. But there is an appropriate time to love your kids and to intentionally be the adult. So the first thing we do is we open up communication. We initiate. So when we talk about how do we prep ourselves for the family visit when we go over and we have this Christmas time with our family.
Where we don’t know what the standard is or we know that it’s different than our family. First is we gotta be open. I’ll go through these quick. So it’s gonna be open, be gracious, be focused. Those are the three parts, and then we’ll run through what that might look like. The first of Be Open means that you are the one starting the conversation.
You’re gonna start it. In a way that is disarming, you are going to be intentional and you are going to be relational. This means you’re not just gonna type up some kind of, constitution of [00:12:00] technology and then email it to them or text it to them. You’re going to call them or visit in person or send them some kind of Voxer or Marco Polo where there is a human interaction as human as it can be through a digital medium.
And you’re going to very clearly lay out, Hey I’m calling ahead. I am, I wanna let you know this is where my family’s coming from, right? And I want some suggestions. How do you think that this would work? Do you think that this is gonna be a point of conflict? Is there something I can do to make this easier here?
I am open. I’m taking suggestions. I’m not just giving them, this is not a mandate. There are certainly times to let your standards be known and to hold a hard line. We don’t start with that hard line, cuz unless this is a conversation you’ve had multiple times and they’ve repeatedly fought you on it, then that’s not what to do.
If they have, Ooh, that’d be interesting. Maybe we’ll touch on that right at the very end. But first, be open. Let’s initiate this conversation, because we have now established it with our own family and we want to be open about the fact that we have a [00:13:00] standard and we’re gonna talk to ’em about it. This is focused on the hope we have for our kids, not the fear of the people we’re visiting or of their kids.
That second piece then is we’re gonna be gracious. By gracious, I do not mean wishy-washy by gracious, we’re gonna be understanding that they may not be in the same spot as us for any number of reasons. Their life could be in just an absolute upheaval, they could just have a different standard of expectation.
The point isn’t to have to win a tech conversation or an even argument right now. The point is to clearly communicate where we are coming from. So we are going to use all those amazing premarital counseling skills we learned. We’re gonna focus on the concern, right? Focus on the problem, not the person. And the idea here is that we’re gonna say, we don’t let our children play any games or watch any shows, like maybe alright. Or maybe we just, we let them watch it for this amount of time. They get 30 minutes a day that they can do it, or we don’t let ’em watch or play anything teen or higher rated, like whatever your standard is to be very clear. on that. And make sure that it [00:14:00] is focused on you. That’s, that idea of being gracious is that you’re coming in with a standard that you’re trying to clearly communicate to avoid future conflicts.
So when you are parenting in the midst of the hangout, when your child is not meeting your family expectations, it’s not about you’re not doing a good enough job. So now I’m stepping in. Instead, you’ve clearly communicated because you were open and communicative because you were gracious in your approach and talked about your family and your love for your family and your love for these people that you’re intentionally going to visit.
In light of that, you are going to intervene if your child doesn’t follow your family’s standards and you’re letting them know that, right? So being understanding of where they’re coming from and loving them where they are at, especially if they’re in a spot that might not be the most healthy. It’s really hard to reel in unhealthy tech.
And the point of this conversation, or any of our gospel tech resources is not so that we can get on our high horse and start judging the people around us. It’s because we recognize our need for the gospel and our technology. We [00:15:00] recognize it because, We would be in a really unhealthy spot. Personally, I would be unhealthy with my technology if not for God’s intervention in my life, with my gaming, with my time, with where my heart goes.
And it’s still an active, prayerful process that I go through to intentionally work in this field, to do the work I do around technology and to not allow it to be something that I either allow, give identity, or allow to basically self-medicate with distractions. So we’re going in gracious, we’re gonna go in understanding that these are also people Jesus loves.
Okay. Got it. Sometimes we forget that over the holidays they’re family, but that doesn’t mean we like ’em . Okay. We’re open, we’re gracious. And the last one is we are focused. So I mentioned before that we’re focused on ourselves, that we’re talking to our children and we’re talking about our decisions, not what they need to do, but in light of that, then we want solutions.
So the solutions the reason I wanna stay, solution focus. Is because this conversation does not have to be huge. The point [00:16:00] of being open and gracious is to get to a solution. Say, Hey, my fourth or 10 year old, in my friend’s case, my fourth or 10 year old, they can’t play any games above E for everyone.
Okay? And they can’t play more than 30 minutes. And whatever your other standard is, they can’t play past 8:00 PM They can’t play in any rooms where the doors are closed. Like these are just our standards for them. What could we do to make this happen? They might say, Hey, you know what? The boys will go upstairs.
They’ll close the door and lock it. Like, all right, maybe they’re gonna just go full on shutdown, not interact with you guys at all, maybe. But most people understanding that situation will go great. I told my boys they can only play for an hour anyway, so we’ll have your kids do this activity while my kids do that activity.
And then when their hours up, we’ll all come back together and play. There are a lot of ways to work this. Speaking of working this, now that we have the big three, we have, we know we need to be open. We know to be gracious; we know that we need to be focused. This is all in light of, we already have a tech standard of safe family expectations, child’s purpose, so [00:17:00] that’s our kind of, setting for this in light of this, what would this look like?
Let’s talk brass tacks for a minute here. Alright, in our minds, let’s I really like my friends’ kind of scenario. So let’s run through this four through 10 year old and a house of eight to 16 year olds. That means the house technology is 16 year old tech. I believe that’s an idea I took from Chris McKenna, Protect Young Eyes.
I’m gonna cite him because I know he said it. Maybe I read it somewhere else too, but that’s who I can recall it hearing it from. And I just love that idea that your house is not. The 10 year old house, when you walk in there, you’re like my oldest is 10, therefore this is what we have to deal with.
Nope, your house becomes whatever the oldest kid is, so you have a 16 year old in the house go in knowing this is a 16 year old’s house. If you go and you approach this person openly and you are gracious and you say, this is what my family’s expectation is, you really are gonna run into three options.
They’re either going to go [00:18:00] fine, do whatever you want. At which point you are now free, to enter in and parent without the shame or guilt of feeling like you’re stepping on anyone’s toes or be making a scene or any of that. Like it’s just you parenting your kids in hope lovingly. That’s the first piece. Second option is they’re gonna wanna compromise and they’ll say, Hey totally get it.
We’ll bring our kids in and we’ll do this halfsies. What about if they played this game or watched this show, or they had this? We’ll play it in a public space, right? That’s cool. And the third is that they’re gonna be combative and they’re going to want to argue you out of it because they feel threatened by your standard.
This would be the you’re not eating dessert option. I don’t know if you’ve ever tried doing this through the holidays where you try to tell people like, no, I’m just, I’m not really eating dessert right now. Like people get really offended by that. If you don’t know what I mean, give it a shot this Christmas, when someone offers you whatever kind of pecan pie they’re gonna give you, just be like, no, you know what?
Like I’m just not having dessert right now and I play it cool. At first, just be like, no. [00:19:00] Not really. You should have some be like, no, it’s all right. Like I’m just, I’m full. What? You barely even ate anything. Have some be like, I’m actually not eating dessert. Like people snap good people that you love will lose their minds.
And there is this thing of I feel convicted. Maybe I shouldn’t have eaten dessert. Oh man, this guy’s ruining Christmas. So we laugh, but it’s real. This can happen with technology too, is that people just wanna let their hair down and they just, it gets the kids outta the way and they just want to do what they want to do and they might push back on you With that.
I would challenge you to remember that we are staying focused on the hope you have. You have reasons. You have a standard. You’re not making this up. You’re not just trained to be difficult or the fringe or , whatever you might get labeled. You’re being intentional as a loving parent. So keep doing a great job at that because the fact that you’ve got this far means you are doing a great job.
But remember that it’s not about winning the argument, with this person, it’s about finding a solution. So I mentioned a couple, but let’s run through them. First [00:20:00] solution is, all right, maybe we’re okay with our kids playing a certain game. Let’s talk digitally or listen to certain music or watching a certain show. But it has to be in a public space.
Certainly a compromise we could do. Can they watch this in the living room? Can they watch this? Whatever in the backyard if you’re somewhere warm. I don’t know what that would be like, but I do know our Australian listeners have a warm Christmas, so maybe that’s an option for you guys. Another option would be that compromise of art.
Can they do that separate and then come join us. We are still here for the relationship. It’s why we arrived . So we would like to actually see you. Is it possible to go do a little bit of this tech time and then go do the second activity. So playing outside, right? Can we just get out and enjoy time together?
Can we bring a game? So I like this one so bring a game either a digital one, like great, we brought Mario Cart. If you guys wanna play, we’ve got our own. This is the game our kids can play. We’re not gonna let ’em go on your Xbox. We’re not gonna let ’em go on your pc.
We’re not gonna let ’em go onto those devices that have internet and browsers and content that we have no idea what’s on there because [00:21:00] stuff can get stored and messages can be sent and the internet is involved. We’re gonna let them play through devices that we are aware of. Preferably ones that have some kind of parental control connected to them, right?
Nintendo Switch has that. Not a lot of others have great controls. Xbox does, but that idea of playing games that we brought, but you can also bring in like non-electronic games. Bring an awesome board game that people just can’t get away from. Get ’em into a game. Depending on which, what age group we’re dealing with I am a sucker for a good board game.
So while I could dive into that, how about I go into that in a future episode instead of spending too much time on it here. I’ll just say you can bring your own games. You can message me for great game ideas. You can check out. I have an older post from last year about great board games, but something like Sushi Go is an easy one.
It’s eight bucks if you check it out on Amazon. A game to play with everybody that’ll be interactive. Something to do an activity that the kids can participate in together. This can be like, I love baking spritz [00:22:00] cookies, and they’re really easy. It’s butter and sugar and a little bit of flour, mostly butter and sugar.
And there’s the actual interaction of squeezing the spritz cookie out on the tray. And you can look it up anywhere with a Google search. And it doesn’t take long. It’s not expensive, but it’s a half hour of activity of kids to do something that would also buy people time to have adult conversations.
So maybe you take one for the team in this compromised conversation. Maybe you do an activity that you bring that’s more like building a gingerbread house or singing Christmas carols or doing some, reading a story out loud together. Like somehow getting people together and finding a way, showing one that you’re solution oriented here.
You’re not about fighting and knock down drag out tech conversation at this point. You are simply looking for a way to have a celebration of Christmas to remember the reason for the season to do this with people you love. It’s just why you arrived. And to do it in a way that isn’t gonna scorch your child’s conscience.
You’re not gonna leave any permanent scars. And [00:23:00] really a way to engage tech together. I mentioned bringing Mario Cart, a friend, a different friend brought up the idea of Hey, maybe we could have you guys over sometime and we could play Mario Cart together. I won’t play guys, but I’m fine. Anna would like it.
The boys would enjoy it. Like it’s not going to ruin them to play Mario Cart. It fits the safety and our family standard and our expectations for them. I’m not gonna buy a switch. I’m not going to own Mario Cart and I’m not going to play personally, but the. That would be fine. Sure, we can come over sometime.
The kids would love it and it would be a fun reason to see you. So if you’re in that position where there’s a reasonable game for you guys to play, again, it might be worth 30 to 60 bucks of your money by the time you’re traveling somewhere and doing all this to just buy a game if they don’t own one that you appreciate.
And offer it to them as a gift like that is a solution that we could get to because think about the amount of heartache you’re avoiding. If things go sour, if things go awry and they get, your child gets exposed to content that’s [00:24:00] unkind, or ideas that are unsafe and unhealthy or just generally traumatized by whatever show or movie or game or music they’re listening to.
How much would you pay to make that right? ? I’d pay 60 bucks. Sure. Over Christmas. That’s a steal. So I just, it’s an option for you as you’re thinking in that last option, if you’re worried that things are gonna go sideways and this person might be confrontational about you bringing this up.
They’re gonna have that dessert over Christmas reaction, have one of these options. So again, public space, playing outside, bringing a game, either the digital version or a physical game to play in person. Bring an activity, bring something festive like a book reading or a baking project or something. A movie to watch together.
A game to play together. Or even just purchasing a game for this specific event because you know that other options aren’t going to be there. That is what I’m talking about when we talk about being focused on a solution. There is also the option that they’re coming to [00:25:00] you and the conversation’s actually a lot easier in this case.
So if your family’s coming over and again, they have older kids, or maybe you are the older kids, it is not a bad idea to initiate this conversation, say, hey, Just so you know, here’s our family situation. We’re gonna ask that smartphones don’t go out of the living space that we’re in. We’re gonna ask that you don’t, your kids don’t take their smart phones into bedrooms. We’re gonna ask that devices are on our Wi-Fi that we have, like our family is the Griffin router, and the main thing that gives you is the ability to monitor all the devices that are logged in. They can log in as guests, you can give them individual passwords.
Yes, it will take you a couple minutes to get that prepped. But those couple minutes mean that you now know everything that’s happening over your Wi-Fi, which means when things go sideways, you’re aware of it. That’s great. And all of the devices that then connect in your house, the tablets and the laptops and stuff will be through your family Wi-Fi.
So then now they’re beholden to your family standards, to that hedge that you set up about the sites they can visit and the stuff they [00:26:00] can do. So it is a wonderful thing to go initiate. Then also, people don’t feel ambushed by your family standards, like you’re somehow brow beating them because they didn’t do the right thing on their own.
So now you have to come in and parent their kids. You just let ’em know this is our house. Here’s our standards. We just wanna let you know we’re really excited for you guys to come. And it never hurts to have those options for solutions available. Hey, we’re planning on having these games. We’re planning on making analog adventures easy.
We’re planning on having kids be able to participate and have fun with one another because we are excited for you guys to come. So we’ve prepared our space to do exactly that, to have fun with you, to have this holiday with you and to yeah, to remember the birth of Christ, which is a big deal. So let’s enjoy it.
Let’s enjoy it together. So that is the beautiful part of when they come over. It’s now your family, your house, your expectations, calling ahead, being gracious, and being solution oriented. Still a really good idea. So in review, looking forward to [00:27:00] Christmas, here’s what you’re gonna do first is you’re gonna make sure you listen to the last episode.
I assume by the time you got here, you already have, then you’re gonna make sure that you are, have that hope, focus standard about making sure all the tech, your children engage that it’s safe. Meaning, if it’s tool or drool tech, and if it’s drool tech, you’ve assessed, you know what, this is drool tech, but it’s a value add for my family.
You know if it has a browser, it basically has internet access, if it has apps, and if it can be held accountable. So you’ve got that part down. Then you know that it fits your family expectations and you know it lines up with your child’s purpose. You Philippian 4:8, this thing, and you have Galatians 5:22. All right, so we have that.
And now we make sure that we’re open, that we’re gracious and that we’re focused with our kids, right? Our kids need to know this is a standard beforehand, , and with the family who’s either coming or that we’re gonna go visit, because this can be an amazing opportunity to love our family, especially when our family’s not believers. There’s a lot [00:28:00] I’m steadily getting, actually I just yesterday had a conversation with a church who’s teamed up with a school district who’s looking for these resources.
An entire district has reached out to a church and is we need something for technology. And he reached out to me and was like, what do you have for public schools? And yeah, we have it, but here’s what’s awesome is I can come in and do that one presentation.
But what’s really cool is when families go to their families, and they start presenting the gospel in action, they start presenting hope. They start presenting a standard for truth. They start presenting accountability and loving, caring assessment of whether something is safe or even a good decision for our children and whether it aligns our family expectations.
That’s an amazing thing. And yes, non-Christian families want that. This is what drives people to the gospel they see their need and they go oh, the Gospel’s a solution to this. I get it. It’s not just another thing I have to go do. It’s how I go about doing all these things that I want to do. The gospel is the good news that God saves sinners.
And out of that, I can now use my technology [00:29:00] from hope, not trying to find hope in technology or even in avoiding technology. Please use this well. Love the people in your community because that is the entire point of this podcast, is to help you do that, to spread the gospel and to see the the life altering and life changing power of the gospel embedded in people’s lives.
And if we can do that through tech, then woo, here we go. We’re doing the good work. So thank you for listening to this. I hope this was encouraging to you. I hope that you can picture what this conversation will look like, that you’ll take that brave step, having the hard conversations and bravely parenting your children where no parents have gone before.
If it was encouraging, would you consider rating, reviewing? Would you consider sharing it with someone that you think this might encourage and challenge? Would you think into 2023 about bringing me out to your church or school? I would love to do that. Right now we have a couple midweek spots available in February and March.
Other than that, we’re booking April and May. I know a lot of churches tend to [00:30:00] do weekend stuff. April and May is where we’re looking right now. I would love to be a resource for you coming out and presenting really three different options. I have a youth talk both about hope and one about technology.
I have a parent talk that’s actually a pair of talks 70 minutes each. The first talks about gaming smartphones and video games. The second is, Tech, how do we know if it’s healthy and how do we set up standards at home? And then the third option is the family tech framework where we actually do it.
We walk through a workbook together. It’s a two hour process. But you come away with a functioning framework where you both know how to talk about tech and how to walk it out in daily life. So I would love to bring that out. We’ve, yeah, we’ve done it all around the US. I have yet to physically travel to another country, but I’m up for it.
So I’ll get my passport started. You get the conversation started. And you can continue this conversation by joining us next week as we continue to talk about how we can love God and use tech.[00:31:00]
