By Gary Andrews
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It seems to me that many in our society are trying to become something other than what they really are. We have so many reality television shows that tell us how to do things and how to live our lives. Young minds are seeing some of these shows and believing their lives can emulate the people on television.
We are becoming a fake world. Look around you and you can see how our political leaders are leading our citizens into a society that only follows and never leads. The reality television shows are doing the same thing. We are becoming dependent on what people tell us to do instead of being creators and self-designers of our own lives.
We see young women and men interviewing and dating other men and women on television trying to find true love. The internet is full of dating services soliciting input from unsuspecting people looking for happiness, true love, and total commitment from someone they have never met or had only a few days with. Yes, some of these can be true love at first sight and these couples may be together until death parts them, however this will be a very low percentage.
Television families have many problems as families of the real world do. The biggest difference is that television families seem to not work on their problems and take desperate measures against each other leading to stress and distress for everyone concerned. Real families should work their problems out and get them behind them, except we are listening and watching what the television tells us to do. Many people are in prison today because someone on television committed an act of violence and got away with it. People, in the real world it doesn’t work that way. You really do pay for your crimes.
What we need to realize is that these actors on television are working and when they are through they go home and, hopefully, enjoy a meaningful relationship with their real family. Too many of our youth are allowed to watch television and believe they can do what these actors are actually getting paid to do and that is paint a rosy picture for a bad situation.
I love to watch the old movie channels because the family situations seem more realistic and down to earth. There is very little violence in these movies and the good guys always win. There is also more family time together and they talk to each other, as all families should. They work out their problems together. These movies show families going and sitting in church together, then going home and having a family dinner around the table.
Our families of today are suffering immensely because we do not take time to talk and be together. One thing that you don’t see in these old movies is a family sitting around watching television, because there wasn’t any.
Think about your family. Do all of you sit and talk things through? Do you go to church together or does each one of you go in a separate vehicle? Do you share a family dinner without the television being on?
Not many of our families can answer yes to these questions because most of them are too busy watching television to see what their next move should be.
Prayer: Father God lead me away from the sinful programming nature of television. Even though it is a good medium in some ways, I pray that I glean from it what you would have me  to see. I pray that I can be a witness for you in all that I do. Amen.
(Suggested daily Bible readings: Sunday – 1 Samuel 8:19-20; Monday – 1 Corinthians 4:14-21; Tuesday – 2 Kings 17:14-15; Wednesday – Joel 1:1-7; Thursday – Psalm 112:1-9; Friday – Philippians 4:8-9; Saturday – 2 Thessalonians 3:6-10.)
Gary Andrews is the author of Encouraging Words: 30-days in God’s Word. To obtain a copy go to his website www.gadevotionals.com