A Father's Voice: Kill Your TV Part 2

This is just a mini-extension of part 1

A theme that has been coming up for me in church and with discussions about faith is how much faith is linked to intimacy. Intimacy with the Father leads to faith and faith leads with intimacy with the Father. Additionally, I believe we were created for intimacy with one another. Jesus even prays for it in John 17 - "May they be one as we are one."

So what struck me when thinking about part 1 is how succinctly intimacy summarizes my point. One of the key reasons I advocate pitching the TV is to build intimacy within the family: intimacy with your spouse and intimacy with your child(ren). It's not a sure-fire solution - there are many ways to avoid intimacy even without a television - but I think TV can be a barrier to building intimate relationships. The process of TV viewing is passive an non-interactive for the most part. While it can be a shared experience, it lacks the dynamic aspects of read-aloud or playing a game.

Killing the television isn't enough. It must also be replaced by something which builds initmate relationships with your children. Far from creating a void, I think it creates an opportunity.