Phone-y Observations

When I was growing up, we obviously didn't have cell phones.  I certainly didn't have my own cell phone and I absolutely didn't text.  When we wanted to play with our friends, we walked ourselves to their door, knocked on it and asked whomever came to the door if our friend could come out and play. It wasn't hard.  It was what we did.  

In that simple act, we learned several little life lessons.  First, we learned to ask and sometimes face a little rejection ("No.  Sally can't come out today.  She has to finish her homework." Etc.), and then move on.  We learned to get out of our comfort zone and just ask, whether we no the answer will be what we want to hear or not.  We moved.  We got outside and actually walked to our friend's house, and then we played until the streetlights came on, or until our mom's yelled out the front door (no text!).  At what point did we stop making our kids go outside and play?

Here's another phone-y observation: kids don't know how to talk on the phone.  One of my students is old enough to have a girlfriend (and has a lovely, sweet one), but he doesn't call her.  What?  When I was dating my hubby (yes, I know that was 900 years ago), we started dating in the summer and then I went back to college...250 miles away.  We talked on the phone everyday.  I'm actually thankful for that time (even back then I was thankful) because I really got to know him...beyond just his hotness. We chose to talk and learn the nuances of each others voice inflection and to communicate.  I wasn't thankful for the long distance phone bills, though.  Yes, kids, we actually had to pay extra to call someone outside of our town.  Yes, I know I'm sounding really old right now.

Don't get me wrong.  I love texting.  For my scattered mind, it is completely helpful to be able to shoot a quick text to someone in the middle of the day when I'm working on something else.  I love being able to schedule a text to my hair dresser when I know she'll be at her shop when I remember something at 9:30 on Saturday night.  It's fantastic to be able to coordinate with all 12 members of my small group Bible study via one message.  I think it's fabulous to send a quick "I love you" message to my husband or kids in the middle of the day.  (Just to be clear, my 11-year-old doesn't have a cell phone.) I just think something is lost when our kids don't have to answer the phone and not know who it is...to just be polite for politeness' sake.

Do you need this fabulous phone booth expression?  Get it here.

Let's purpose to put the phone down today.  Let's intentionally look each other in the eyes.  Let's talk about body language, and what it says to someone when we stare at a little screen instead of looking at them.  Let's move and go and enjoy the last few weeks of summer before we start into fall.  Life is speeding up.  Enjoy this moment, right now.  It is our life.

Make it a beautiful day, friends.

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