Dumb Phone
Good morning, Baby Girl,
It’s 2:03 AM and you have been restlessly awaiting our meeting since you laid down at 10 PM. You want answers. You want the next steps. Baby, you’ve already got them.
I want you to know that I will be quiet for a season, and you are to be quiet as well.
Why the tears? I won’t be far from you. I am within you.
If, in this season, when you are not hearing My voice, you feel that I am far from you, remember it is you who has wandered - not Me.
In this quiet season, meditate on all we have discussed. Seek Holy Spirit and study your Bible to validate these words. Live them out.
As James says, “…and be a doer of the word, and not a hearer only deceiving yourself.”
As Jeremiah says, “Hear the words of this covenant and carry them out.”
Be like the wise man Jesus talked about in Matthew who, “hearing these words of Mine acts on them and builds his house on the rock.”
Remember what it says in Romans - that it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before Me, but it is the doers of the law who will be declared righteous.
After all, like James says, “What good is it if you claim to have faith, but have no deeds? Can such a faith save you?”
There are three words that can summarize all the letters you have received. Keep these three words ever before you for they will bring life to your days, peace to your soul, and strength to your bones: trust, obey, delight.
Trust
Proverbs 3:5-6 - “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.”
Obey
Deuteronomy 5:33 - “You shall walk in all the ways which the Lord your God has commanded you, that you may live and that it may be well with you, and that you may prolong your days in the land which you shall possess.”
Delight
Psalm 1:1-3 - “Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful; but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law, he meditates day and night. He shall be like a tree planted by rivers of water, that bring forth its fruit in its season, whose leaf also shall not wither; and whatever he does shall prosper.”
In this quiet season, read through the letters you have received to date, prayerfully asking Holy Spirit where you are missing the mark. As you lie here in bed, you have already identified several areas and asked for My wisdom on how to handle them.
I had you get off social media nine months ago and you immediately obeyed. You knew that was intended to be for the rest of your life but the lure of marketplace last week drew you to create a friendless Facebook account that you could use to participate in the benefit of buying and selling online.
Opening that account was an act of disobedience. I cannot bless disobedience. Delete it.
I have talked to you about your addiction to that phone many times. It’s a distraction. When I talk to you about it, you fall into black-and-white, all-or-nothing thinking. You want a flip phone. You reason that if you had a flip phone then you could control the amount of time you spent on the phone.
What would you lack if you didn’t have a smart phone?
Easy access to the internet to look up words and Bible verses
Blue letter Bible app
Audiobooks on Audible
Music
Sermons and YouTube videos to listen to
YouTube for recording and posting videos on my channel
Video creating through Vita
Picture editing with Mematic
Easy texting
Marco Polo videos
The camera
Driving directions with Maps
The ability to take notes in the notes app
Family shared calendar
Team App for my daughter’s lacrosse team
Scheduling for cameras and recovery through planning center
GroupMe communication with recovery kitchen, hope team, prayer team, gratitude group
Group texting with Tuesday night Bible study, Zoom prayer group, family chat
Easy access to email
Quick orders from Amazon when I think of something we need
Check cashing on bank app
Go back and read the last few sentences of the Tail End of the Puppy letter.
“The next two months are a gift I am giving you. Think of the weeks at home between trips as the dinner and the weekends as dessert. Delight in them.
You’ve asked Me dozens of times about whether I want you to bring your laptop and, specifically, if you can work on editing this book during your travels.
I have an answer for you but until you truly find the unmixed joyful anticipation for these upcoming trips, you won’t be prepared to honor my heart about this project.”
Are you ready for My answer?
Are you open to My suggestion?
That was a nervous smile. Have I ever suggested something that was not in your best interest?
Google “how to make a smart phone dumb.”
You’re feeling overwhelmed by this idea. Check your blood pressure. 136/107 and your immediate response was Google. High blood pressure is a systolic reading of higher than or equal to 130 over diastolic reading equal to or higher than 80.
Your blood pressure is rising again. I healed your blood pressure but your willful disobedience is undoing that healing. That low-grade headache you’ve been experiencing is due to high blood pressure.
You sure are into fact checking Me tonight. Now that you know that high blood pressure can in fact cause headaches, I’ll ask you again: are you open to My suggestion?
For the next 60 days, in this season of external busyness, turn your phone into a dumb phone. Do not do anything other than use your phone for calls, texts, calendar, maps, and basic communication through necessary apps for ministry and parenting, and do not use your phone when the car is moving. Not as the driver and not as a passenger.
Resist the urge to do everything else you currently do on it. Keep it in your purse or on a table. Do not carry it on your body. Become physically and emotionally detached from it until it becomes a tool - not a companion.
Turn on the “away from the phone” messages for calls and texts that you used last summer. Make your immediate family and those you are a caregiver for the only people who will always ring through. Everyone else will have to wait until your scheduled phone times. Each morning, you and I will select a few times throughout the day and set alarms for when you are to check and respond to missed calls and texts.
No headphones. Period. Not at work. Not on the prayer call. Not for phone calls. Not on car rides. Not on the airplane. Not on walks. No headphones. Period. Put them away in the closet right now so you’re not tempted to use them simply because you see them.
Plug your phone in across the room in your bedroom. You will not be going to sleep to YouTube videos for these two months. If there is a YouTube video you want to watch, you are to watch it on your laptop which will require intention.
You asked Me if you could bring your laptop on your trips - the answer is no.
You will not have your laptop and you are to abide by all the same boundaries we just agreed to about your phone. You are not to take any projects on any of your trips. You can take your Bible, your journal, your art journal, and markers. That’s it.
If you don’t know what a word means or feel curious about something, make yourself a note. For these two months, you are only to use your laptop at home and only when your family is not home. Period. You will need to become very intentional with the time we set aside for using technology.
These boundaries are not for the rest of your life. They are for these two months.
Print out a list of these guidelines to inform your decisions over the next two months. You tend to get less intentional about commitments you make as time moves on. I want you to honor these suggestions for these two months with your whole heart.
Don’t inform Me of your plans for the day - inquire of Me your plans for the day.
You’ve gone 45 minutes past our agreed-upon time. Get back to bed. You’ll have to program your phone and deactivate Facebook after work tomorrow.
What I’m asking is not hard. It’s easy.
LOVE,
Daddy
1 Corinthians 7:35