Simply…being alone

I have been thinking alot lately about how our society craves being entertained.  We are rarely bored and if we are, we don’t know what to do with ourselves.  Or we feel like it’s a bad thing.

For instance we now can have instant access to people at anytime via phone, internet, etc.  How many people stop at a red light, and check their phones for messages, etc.?  That one minute at a light feels like time that needs to be filled.  Or worse yet, those who text, check email while driving?

We are afraid to be bored.  Worse yet, we don’t want our children to be bored.  So starting when they are infants we buy them all kinds of toys with lights and noises to “entertain” them.  Even when they are newborns.  We don’t want them to be bored!

Then as they get older we buy tons of more complicated toys, and when there is a lapse in time we feel the need to fill it up…and the toys become more complex.  A video game system, an ipod, a cell phone, etc.  So every spare moment can be filled up.  

We live in a world where we are never alone.  We are in constant contact with everyone via texting, facebook, etc.  I am guilty of this myself and have become aware of the need to be alone.   To think.  Without distraction.

I think our kids  (and myself included!) need to get back to simpler ways.  To be bored.  To be alone.  It is then where they have to use their brains to imagine, and to be alone helps them know who they really are.  How can they get in touch with themselves, and more importantly with God, if they are always busy?

My husband and I talked about making sure the kids have some alone time each day.  Not time alone with a video game, movie, etc.  But some true alone time in their rooms, or in the yard.  To just BE.  To take some time to be bored, and be with themselves.

Look at Jesus.  He craved alone time too.  He would go off to be alone and to pray.

I think it is so important to foster this in our kids.  To let them know it is OK to be bored.  They don’t always have to be entertained.  To simply…be alone.