Sometime during the spring I began using Netflix, Amazon Prime, and the NBC and PBS apps to binge watch A LOT OF TV!

• Prison Break
• Endeavor
• Homefires
• Grantchester
• Mercy Street
• That Girl
• Columbo
• AGT, ANW, Spartan Races, Strong

(Just to name a few)

My binge watching continued through most of the month of June. But then one morning, near the end of the month, something happened. I took a break from TV and began reading the book of Daniel. Within twenty seconds I arrived at Daniel 1:8 “But Daniel resolved not to defile himself with the royal food and wine and he asked the chief official for permission not to defile himself this way.”

For a few seconds I paused at that verse then continued reading until I came to Daniel 2:28a “But there is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries.”

That right there stopped me in my tracks. You see, for several weeks I had been frustrated, because towards the end of the school year I felt I hit a dry spell with my writing. On the last day of school, a colleague asked me about my summer goals. My response, “I plan on spending the majority of my free time working on manuscripts.”

Instead, I was:

• Rooting for Michael Scofield to break out of prison, and somehow unite with Dr. Tancredi, and for the duo to join forces, take down The Company, and put T-Bag back behind bars.
• Finding out what case Morse would be thrown into on the next episode of Endeavor.
• Hoping that Pat Simm’s husband on Homefires would finally see the light and stop his abusive ways, repent, and reconcile with his wife, and somehow help her heal from the wounds she had suffered because of him. Or, would she tire of his treatment and give him a dose of his own medicine. Or, would she gain the courage to tell others of his abuse and eventually leave the sorry ole dog.
• Scrutinizing the ways of Sidney Chambers of Grantchester.
• Sympathizing with Dr. Foster in Mercy Street as he fought his internal demons.
• Helping Columbo solve a case.
• Wondering what ridiculous escapade That Girl would be involved in next.
• Cheering for the talented folks on AGT.
• Analyzing the athletic skills of those on ANW, Spartan Races, and Strong.

Now right here I’m gonna post a disclaimer: Watching TV Is Not A Bad Thing! In fact, in a future post I will share something I learned from watching American Ninja Warrior.

However, for me, all that binge watching became a huge problem. The problem: I shut out the voice I needed to hear – God’s voice—because as I increased my TV time, I decreased my time with Him. And as I decreased my time with Him, I felt empty, and dry, and didn’t even want to write.

So, for the month of July, I decided to host my own thirty-one day TV abstinence challenge. Instead of absorbing techno wavelengths, I challenged myself to spend more time in the Word, and to read ten books. My biggest fear though, was that during that month I would drop one habit and pick up another—like playing games non-stop on my phone.

How did I fare? Well, I read ten books (I’ll share the list in another post), and didn’t binge watch TV. But, due to some traveling logistics and through the prompting of my husband, I did catch a few moments of the news. And, I sort of (half-heartedly) watched some portions of a TV show (or two) while visiting family members. While I didn’t play games non-stop on my phone, I did spend some time trying to conquer Spider Solitaire (hey, no judging me here—no one wants to glimpse me running through town chasing Pokémon anyway).

Interestingly enough, during the month of July, I had no desire to watch TV—and still don’t. Even after playing a few games and finally conquering Spider Solitaire, I realized I was more interested in reading—and still am.

Which brings me back to Daniel 1:8—I can’t say that TV is royal food—but without realizing it, I treated TV as such and accepted its temporary satisfying nourishment. Truthfully, even books could be treated as royal food. Actually, anything can become royal food if we’re not careful.

Personally, I needed to extricate myself from what was holding me back, so I could move forward. Wringing out the absorbed techno wavelengths lodged in my brain was the first step.

I’d love for you to weigh in on the royal food topic, discuss the effects of binge watching TV, or even list your current favorite series. Use the comments section to join the conversation.