Your Family and Technology, Part 3 — John Byler

In the third talk of his series, John Byler addresses families and technology, framing the smartphone through Jeremiah’s image of "broken cisterns" dug in place of God, the fountain of living water. He marvels at how much a phone can do—and warns that its very power tempts us to feel self-sufficient and stop needing God, other people, prayer, and Scripture. Comparing refined digital pleasure to refined white sugar, he describes phone and social-media addiction (citing Brad Huddleston’s "Digital Cocaine"), offers a simple test—go without it for half a day—and asks whether we are the master or the slave. His answer is to build real, face-to-face relationships (loving God and neighbor), use accountability and filtering tools honestly, refuse to let phones babysit our children, and consider family phones or browser-less options. He closes by contrasting the world’s "digital detox" retreats with the better answer of reconnecting with God, church, and community, followed by audience reflections on filling the swept-clean heart with God, filtering as wisdom, decluttering "fluff," and the danger of an unaddressed, uncensored technology stance.

Key Points:

– Life comes only from God; like Jeremiah’s broken cisterns, smartphones tempt us to seek life on our own terms and feel independent of God and others.

– Phones deliver refined, instant pleasure and reward without cost—like white sugar—and about a third of people are addicted; a simple test is to go without a phone for half a day.

– Scripture calls us not to be controlled by any substance (Ephesians 5); the real danger is the phone becoming our master rather than our tool.

– The best safeguard is real, heart-to-heart relationships—loving God and neighbor—rather than virtual, commitment-free connection driven by self ("iPhone").

– Use accountability and filtering apps honestly (they help, though not foolproof), and don’t let phones babysit children; prefer family phones or browser-less options like the Gabb phone, walking with children rather than only shielding them.

– The world’s answer (digital-detox retreats) points to reconnection; the better answer is to leave the device and reconnect with God, church, and community—audience adds that a swept-clean heart must be filled with God, filtering is wisdom not weakness, and an unaddressed stance drives youth to hidden, uncensored use.

Scripture References: Jeremiah 2:11-13; 1 Corinthians 7:31; Ephesians 5:15-18; Matthew 22:37-39; Matthew 12:43-45 (the unclean spirit’s return)

Guide me, O the great Jehovah, pilgrim through this barren land. All right, praise the Lord, everyone. We’re really excited to be on this morning and doing the talk on technology — how to go forward with our families and give the right protection and guidance. And we all know that there’s a lot of dangers in technology, but there’s also a lot of good, healthy uses. And I just look forward to what Brother John has to share with us this morning.

So we have Brother John agreed to talk about it. Brother John and his wife Beth are from Perry County, Elliottsburg, Pennsylvania. They’re part of Perry Believers Fellowship. They have 11 children and two grandchildren. So let’s go ahead and have a word of prayer, and we’ll hand it over to Brother John. Dear Lord God, thank you for this opportunity to be talking about a very important subject like this — technology, how we use it, how much we use, and to use it to your praise and glory, to build your kingdom, and to be able to have healthy, godly families, where we have healthy interactions with each other, healthy social lives, and healthy churches. We know that there’s much against us in this area, but we also know that he that is within us is greater than he that is in the world. And that by your grace and with your help, we can overcome. Bless Brother John with wisdom, with grace, with understanding. Bless the hour this morning, however much time we have. Just be with us and guide our thoughts, and teach us, dear Lord, in the name of Jesus. Amen. All right, Brother John, the time is yours.

Okay. I think this is an important subject to talk about — technology, and how we relate to all of it. So, maybe first of all, I’ll just say a little bit of who I am, where I come from. So, my name is John Byler. And so my grandfather would have been Amish — he actually left the Amish. And so my father grew up in Big Valley. And that’s kind of my background. I’m grateful for what God has done for us, and what God has given us.

There is — I’d just like to say, as we talk about how we relate to the world around us — you know, some people can be part of a conservative church, maybe an Amish church, with, you know, expectations or rules. And, you know, if we leave that, what do we do? How do we handle life? What decisions do we make? And so, by the grace of God, we can walk through life in a good way without being overtaken by the things of the world. So I’m going to start here with Jeremiah chapter 2, verse 11 to 13.

All right. So, our life comes from God. There is no other source of life. And ever since the first sin of man, when Adam and Eve sinned in the garden, people have been trying to find life on their own terms, in their own way, instead of being in humble dependence on God for their life. God’s ways say that we can’t do anything else, but, you know, Satan offers that if you do this, then you’ll have something — you’ll have something that will make you, that will give you life, or be like God. Because only God can give life. So, you know, some people may turn to things like stealing and lying to get what they want. We know that’s wrong. We know that’s going to end up bad. But a lot of people do more acceptable things to try to find life — things that seem okay, and things that can be used. But without God, without going to God, we will not find life.

So, I just want to make that a basis for — as we think about technology, think about our phones in particular, and social media and all the distractions that come along with that. So, our life comes from God. So, we live in an age — in the last 100, 150 years — we live in an age of many, many inventions. There’s more things invented, probably, than in the centuries and millennia before that, it seems like. Almost any job that we have to do, there’s an invention for it. Somebody invented some tool to help us get that job done. In the house, we have dishwashers to help us wash dishes. We have calculators to do our math for us. We have nail guns to frame houses — we don’t have to hammer them in. We don’t have to go on and on, but that’s the world we live in.

And so, all these inventions — we can use them, and they can be helpful in getting our work done. And yeah, we can put them to good use. But all these inventions can make us feel independent, and give us a sense of not needing God, not needing other people. We have a tool. We have what we need. We’re not dependent anymore. And the other thing that these inventions do is that they give us — we can get more of what we want. We can let the dishwasher wash the dishes so we can go do something that we want to do, without the work. And we can build a house faster, because we don’t have to hammer the nails, we can shoot them with a nail gun. And so we can get our house faster and quicker and cheaper. And so we feel less needy, less dependent on God. We can get what we want easier and quicker and cheaper with all the inventions that we have.

So if we go back to our verses there in Jeremiah, it talks about digging cisterns to hold water — I believe that it says we’ve forsaken God, the fountain of living water. So I think these cisterns are our attempt in life to get things around us to help us, to sustain us through life, to give us life. Water is what sustains us in our natural life. And water, in a spiritual way, is sustaining to our souls. And so, if we want the water on our terms, we turn away from God, and we turn to things that seem like they’re going to help sustain us.

We’re going to talk about smartphones. And, you know, a lot of this can apply to other inventions as well. But this has just become an incredible tool that we have to figure out how we’re going to relate to. So, it’s an amazing invention, our smartphone is. We can find answers to our questions. It will do our math for us. It will tell us how to spell words. It tells us what the weather looks like for the day. It tells us what’s happening around the world. We can use it to remind us of things we need to do and events we want to attend. It will wake us up in the morning. It will sing us to sleep at night, if we want it to. It will entertain us when we’re bored. Endless options. There’s music, books, videos, podcasts, anything, whatever. If we get tired of one thing, we can try something else.

It will spoon-feed us our religion — whatever religion we are. If we’re Christian, we can have an app. It will give us a verse for the day, a scripture reading, a prayer, a short story. It will give us all that without any effort, or very little effort. It’s amazing. It not only does what we tell it to do, but it gives us suggestions for more things. It learns what we like — suggestions for more things that we might like. So it fits any lifestyle. It adapts. Yeah — any lifestyle, any religion, any age or gender, it doesn’t matter. It fits everyone. It’s a store — we can do our shopping anytime, any time of the day or night. It can be our office, where we work. It can be our church, where we hear about God. It’s a social meeting place, where we can meet with friends. And it can be our school, where we learn. So, you know, there’s so incredibly much that we can use our smartphones for. We could go on and on about all of that. Everything we can carry in our pocket. And that is really amazing.

But with all of this — do we need God? Do we still need God? Or can we just find everything that we need right there? If we have questions, we can ask Google. If we are discouraged, we can turn to that for comfort. Yeah — there’s so much there that we can turn to, that I feel one of the big dangers of the whole thing with technology and smartphones is that we become independent and self-sufficient. We don’t have to pray and ask God. We don’t have to read the Bible. We don’t have to go ask other people. We have everything right there in our pocket.

So, in 1 Corinthians chapter 7, verse 31 — I’m kind of jumping in the middle of things here, and this isn’t talking about smartphones or technology, but I think this applies — it says, those who use this world, as not misusing it; for the form of this world is passing away. So, we’re in this world. We use the things in this world. We use the inventions that we have — we use some of them. We have to decide what is useful and what’s not. But let us not misuse these inventions. Let’s not use them to take the place of God, and take the place of relationships with other people. Can we use this invention for good use? Sure, we can. There’s lots we can do with it. But if we’re not aware of the trap that’s set for us, it’s very easy to fall into a trap.

And so I’d like to talk about the trap, the snare that is set for us with the phone that we carry around in our pocket. So, what we have is a device that gives us almost instant pleasure without much cost. We can find pleasure instantly without putting much effort into it. We can have relationships without commitment or accountability. We can have a relationship based on whatever I want to, on whatever level I want. When you sit down face-to-face with a person, that’s a lot more vulnerable. But this way, our relationships are without commitment or accountability. We can experience reward without pain or effort, or very little effort.

The food industry has figured out how to refine sugar, until we have just, like, you know — the refined white sugar is just sugar. And so, the world has refined pleasure and reward. And, you know, these things that we look for in life to give us meaning to life — they’ve refined it down to us, just like that white sugar. And with our phones, you know, that’s what it feeds us. Well, we know that if we eat too much sugar, we’re going to get sick pretty quick. And so it is with the phones — same thing. If we feed off of that, we’re going to be sick. We’re not going to be healthy at all. But it’s very tempting. You know, our children — they would like to eat candy a lot, because candy is good. Why not eat it? Well, as parents, we say, no, you know, you can have a little bit, but not too much — because we don’t want them to be sick and unhealthy.

All right. So, with all of what our smartphones and our technology have to offer us, it’s very, very tempting. I have it in my pocket. If I’m feeling discouraged, if I’m feeling bored, it’s so easy — the temptation is right there, you know, to pull out my phone, watch a video, look at the news, whatever — maybe look at Facebook or whatever. But that may just simply be like eating a piece of candy when you’re hungry, and it takes away your appetite for good things. And pretty soon — the actual cost is pain, and the actual cost is suffering. And there is a tremendous cost that we pay in turning to that. And we lose a lot more than we gain by doing that.

And a recent study I read the other day — a recent study suggests that about a third of the world population is addicted to their phones. So, one out of three people have an addiction. So, what is an addiction? So we know what something like alcohol addiction is. An addiction is when some substance, or something, actually controls us to a point that it has a very negative impact on our lives. So, you know, a smartphone addiction, or digital addiction, is when a person becomes controlled by their phone. So I think a good test to see if we’re addicted or not is to do without it. And it’s a very simple test. It’s not hard — unless you’re addicted, then it’s really hard. But just put your phone away for even half a day and see how you feel. Do you become — can you function? Do you become anxious? Do you become restless? Is there withdrawal? And, you know, it’s a very, very simple way to see where we’re at.

So, the phone is an invention. But do we use it? Or does it become our master, and we the slave? And that’s where I want us to be honest. We need to be honest — are we the master? Or is it enslaving us? So, Ephesians 5, verse 15 to 18: See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is. And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit. We are commanded in the scriptures to not be controlled by substance. And I believe that applies very much to smartphone and media usage, as well as alcohol.

All right. So, there have been many, many studies that have been done on the effects of digital addictions. And I don’t think I’ll get into a lot of that, because there’s so much there. But probably the two biggest, most addictive things are social media — things such as Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, things like that — and gaming, playing digital games. Those seem to be probably the biggest addictive parts of it. And it’s no joke. It’s no joke. I would suggest listening to a message by Brad Huddleston. It’s on YouTube. It’s called Digital Cocaine. He has a lot of good information, but he shows brain scans, where it compares the brains of cocaine addicts, digital addicts, porn addicts, compared to a healthy brain. It’s our brain — and we are unable to think and reason like we should, like God intends us to, when we’re addicted to our phones.

When we are addicted, we become restless and irritable, and we need a fix. We need the fix of our phone, and if we don’t have that, we don’t function well. It becomes a controlling thing in our lives. It becomes a broken cistern. We have this thing that we’re going to, to give us something, a fix in life, but it’s broken. It doesn’t hold any water. There’s no life in it. It doesn’t give us what we need. We might hate it. We might not like who we are and how it controls us, but an addiction works that way. We turn to it over and over, because it’s all we have, and it’s controlling us. In the end, it leaves us broken, lonely, depressed, hopeless. That’s what it gives us. It doesn’t give us life. It takes our life away from us.

I spent a little time talking about — so I didn’t get into a lot of detail about what phone addictions actually do to us, but I would just really recommend doing a little research on that. If you have any questions, Brad Huddleston has a lot of good research on that. But — what can we do? What can we do to find our way through this age that we live in? So, we’re going to have to be honest. We live in an age that uses phones, and we can’t ignore that we have been changed. We’re going to have a different community, a different culture of people, than 50 years ago, or before all of this. So let’s be honest with that — we are different, we have been changed. Now, what can we do, or how can we live in a way that we can find life, and that we don’t get left being enslaved and broken by these things?

So, I guess my first thing I would like to say — and what I feel like is probably the most important thing that we can do — is to build relationships. Real, face-to-face, heart-to-heart relationships. I communicate with people through the phone, through texting and things like that, but I’ve chosen not to have things like Facebook. I don’t feel like that is going to take me where I want to go. It’s going to be a distraction. I’m not saying there aren’t people that can use that, but — build relationships. Jesus said the first and greatest commandment is to love God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, with all your strength. And the second commandment is like it — to love your neighbor as yourself. If we live that out, I don’t think we’d have any problems with being enslaved to our devices.

So, love God. How do we love God? We’re going to spend time with him. We’re going to pray. We’re going to read the Bible. We’re going to have a relationship with God. And right along with that, Jesus says, our relationship with the people around us. And how do we love our brother well? How do we love our neighbor? It’s not by having a virtual connection, but by having real connections, and doing real things with real people, and caring for others. The hook in the smartphone, the digital age, is a selfish pursuit. We have iPhone — why are they called iPhones? It’s because it’s about me. And it’s all about self. It’s self-gratification. It’s what I can get — very much against the gospel of Jesus Christ, which is laying down our lives for others. So, build relationships, give, love other people, love God, give of ourselves. Don’t see what we can get. Depend on God for our life, and let us give to others, not see what we can get.

First of all, talk about us as adults. How do we handle it? These things are subtle. They can overtake us without us realizing what happened, almost. So I think it’s important — very important — to have accountability. There are accountability apps we can put on our phones. I actually use a parental control app, and it records everything that I look at, and how much time I spend on my phone, and things like that. It’s also a filter. It blocks — well, there’s different categories, but it’ll block things that aren’t good. And now, I would like to say that it is not an impenetrable wall. There are ways — it’s not a perfect safeguard, but it is a safeguard. And I think maybe even the bigger thing is the accountability.

And so, you know, probably most of the time, I’m not tempted to get into something bad. But I know my own weakness, that if there’s a time when — if something happens, I’m feeling discouraged, or feeling lonely or bored, and I am caught off guard, I’m alone, I have a phone — I know that I’m weak, and that the temptation is there to go down roads that are not going to be good. And once you start down that road, there’s always the next thing to lead you on. And so, you know, I think it’s important to have the accountability and the safeguards. There are accountability apps that you can set up with groups. You can, you know, have someone that you’re accountable to. That’s very good. And I’m not talking about specific addictions like porn addictions — I think that’s a different category somewhat, although it’s connected. I’m just simply talking about needing our phones too much, and spending, wasting time, finding our life wrapped up and controlled by our phones.

All right. So, there are things that we can do — but what about our children? We need to be honest. We need to recognize the danger. And — I would not give my children alcohol at a young age to keep them happy, because I know that that’s a bad thing. I mean, I could give them marijuana — maybe, you know, it would just make them feel happy, and it would be easier for me as a parent, I don’t have to work through their problems. And yet, that’s what people do with their phones. They become a babysitter. And children can spend hours and just days on the phone, and they don’t know any better. The parents give it to them. They’re not able to process and figure out that this is bad for me. They just — it feels good, it’s fun, it’s entertaining. And we do that. So, I feel like that’s a terrible thing to do. And that’s something we should not do.

How can we work that out? So, I’ve thought about that. There again, I think it’s selfish on our part as parents, if we do that. We don’t want to go through the pain and the effort of meeting our children’s needs. We don’t want to take the time to build a relationship with them. We don’t want to take the time to help them work through life’s challenges and relationships. But that’s what we need to do. If we’re going to love our children, those are the things we need to do for our children, instead of giving them a phone. They don’t need that. They don’t need to have their own phone until they’re a little older. And so, that’d be my encouragement.

The other thing is, we live in an age where our way of communicating is by phone. And so, are we, as parents, okay with sharing our phones with our children if they want to message their friends? Can they use our phones? And then, that is also accountability for us as parents. If our children have our phones, and, you know — are we hiding anything? Do we have things to hide, things that we are afraid to let our children see? I hope not. If we do, maybe we need to rethink what we’re doing. But let our children use our phones. Let’s have a family phone, instead of getting everyone their own personal phone.

Some things that we can do — you know, maybe your child, you know, is it a place where they need a phone for some reason, they’re going someplace or something? There are phones — like, there’s a phone called the Gabb phone, G-A-B-B, and it does not have a web browser. It comes with certain apps installed, and you can talk and text and, you know, necessary things, but you cannot add more apps. You cannot go on the internet. So, those are options. It’s worth protecting our children from the danger of just unknowingly becoming addicted to a phone before they’re old enough to think about it. They’re going to have to make their own choices. We can’t just shield them all their lives. And, you know, I think there is also a danger in just shielding our children so much that when they do finally, you know, maybe get a phone, that they have no idea how to handle it, and they just fall headlong into the trap. So I think it’s wise to, you know, walk with our children in how we use these things — not just, it’s an off-limits subject, but we are walking through this together. It’s relationship.

Yeah. So, these are some things that I feel are ways that can be helpful. Talk about them, you know — as a church, I think it’s important to have discussions, talk about how we’re doing and where things are at. So, if you find yourself being addicted to your phone, what do you do then? What is the way out? And I think that probably one of the first things is just simply being honest, that this is where I am. And then — it may be different for different people. Maybe some people can just simply, you know, with another person helping them, set time limits or restrictions on themselves, and work their way out of it. Other people may need more help. You know, maybe you need a phone without a browser, or something like that. Don’t think you’re strong enough to handle something when you aren’t. Acknowledge our weaknesses. We need to know what our weaknesses are.

We don’t have to have every tool the world has to offer. We don’t have to have the ability to do what everybody else does. If we’re weak, let’s be honest. The world offers solutions as well. And I just find it interesting — so there’s a website, it’s called digitaldetox.com. It’s sort of a version of rehab, I guess, for people that are addicted to their phones. But I just want to read just a little bit off of what’s on their website. It says, it’s not just about unplugging, it’s about rediscovering what happens when we truly plug into life. This is their advertisement. It sells — our community, nature, and the world at large. So what they do is, they offer, like, three-day retreats, where you go and you leave all your devices at home. There’s no devices. You’re not connected to the world through your devices. And then you’re with a group of people that you do things together — you just do things together with other people. The world sees the need for that — the brokenness of people being enslaved to their devices. And their answer is to reconnect with people, with yourself, and the world around you.

I think we have a better answer, even though it’s maybe similar. Leave your device. Reconnect with God. What is church but connection with other people? Let’s connect with God, with church, with our community. We don’t need to be looking to a broken cistern to give us life-giving water. We can look to God. He is our giver of life, and he has given us all that we need. So, these are some things to think about. I know it’s a huge subject, we could spend days talking about it, but this is by no means all-inclusive. There’s so many resources out there. If you have questions, or have a need in your own life, don’t just keep on doing the same thing. Find help. Find answers. Find a way. And there is hope. So, God bless you.

All right. Well, thank you, John, for your willingness to address this really important situation. You asked the question, do we still need God? And I think that’s very central to this whole subject — the living waters, the fountain of living waters, versus the broken cistern. That’s just so fitting, as well, in this subject, and, of course, in all of life. But just thinking about having a spring — there’s an endless supply of fresh, cold water there. Go and get some. It’s just there all the time — versus a cistern. And we’re even talking about a broken cistern. But even just a good cistern — it holds your water, but it’s going to get stale. It’s just going to get disgusting and unhealthy — and then take it to the next level, when it’s broken. But why would people ever build cisterns if they have a fountain of living water close by? Well, there’s a number of reasons.

You know — wherever you want it. You can’t really move the spring. If there’s a good spring, you can’t really just take it and move it somewhere else. The cistern, you can build it kind of where you want, and how you want, whatever size you want. So the temptation is to have it my way. And that is so much of the world’s problem. And it can be our problem, if we’re not very careful — it is our problem. Our hearts are all bent toward wanting to have it my way. And these phones — and that’s what we’re talking about this morning, we could say the same for many other subjects, but we’re talking about our technology this morning — it really tends to feed that selfishness. It’s my phone. I’ve got my life on it. I can have what I want, when I want. And it is so glamorous and so attractive, and holds so much for us. If we have it all and we don’t have God, in the end we don’t have anything. It’s all going to be lost and in vain in the end.

You’re lifting up healthy, real-time relationships — first of all, with God. That’s biblical. The first commandment is to love the Lord our God with all our heart. The second is like it, to love our neighbors as ourselves. And to really focus on good, healthy relationships — whether it’s family, whether it’s at the workplace, church, community. That was just a really good exhortation and challenge for all of us to really take to heart. I know that I need it. I need to be reminded. And I really just love what you laid out, Brother John. So again, thank you for the talk. I think it’s much worth our time, and I believe that it will be a blessing to many people.

Maybe there’s someone else that would have a comment, a question. I open it up at this time for discussion. So, is there anyone that would have anything to say? I was just thinking about it — got a little bit of a cold yet. I was thinking about where — if you chase out the bad spirit — I was trying to find it a little bit ago. If you have a bad spirit, and you sweep the house, and then if you don’t fill it with something, then the bad spirit is going to come back. So it’s kind of like the phone. If you have any device, if you don’t fill it with God, your heart with God, then you’re going to have to fill it with something else. Can you hear me all right? Yeah, we can. Okay. So that was something that I thought, you know, helps a lot too. If you fill it with something besides the phone, it’s going to be something else. And, you know, what will that be? So, just a thought too.

I really appreciate you bringing that up, Natalie. We’re not made to live in a vacuum. We’re not made to have a vacuum inside us. And the phone just is the perfect answer, right? It’ll fill us quickly — it’ll fill our time, fill our mind. But we need to fill our heart with good things, with God, and the things that God gives us. So, when we are filled with things that are good and meaningful, then the temptation to fill our hearts with the wrong thing — it really takes care of that. So, thank you for bringing that up. Anyone else have anything?

Well, good morning, everyone. Yeah, thank you so much for sharing this morning, Brother John. One thing you mentioned was, don’t let these things take the place of God. That may sound to some people like, wow, you know, kind of far out, maybe. But I think there’s a lot of people in this world — their phone, their devices, is their world. That’s their connection, their friends, and it is their God, no doubt. John mentioned that the phone isn’t a loyal friend — it’ll leave us lonely, empty. And that is very true. The only — yeah, and we heard that this morning — the only fulfilled life is a life that’s dedicated to the Lord. For myself, and our family, we have Family Safe, a filtering system, that we use. And we have a local individual that helps us with that process, if we need help in updating things, or whatever the case may be.

Now, I have heard these conversations in the past — not so much recently — the idea, if you, wow, if you need a filtering system or anything like that, that may be a sign of your lack of spirituality. Like, why would you need that? I mean, aren’t you controlled by the Spirit? You know, those kind of conversations. That’s really foolish for us, as men, or whoever — I guess we’re all probably men here this morning, and fathers, perhaps husbands, families — that is really foolish for us, to have the devices around and not have any kind of filtering system. For us to have a filtering system is wisdom. Yeah, I mean, on my phone, I have a number of things blocked that I don’t have access to. To me, it’s a choice I make. I don’t want a lot of distractions from my phone, beeping about different things. Yeah, so, may God help us with all this, in the world we live in — that we don’t become enslaved to any of these devices. And if we are being enslaved, to be honest about it, and to be open about it. So, yeah, God bless. Thanks so much.

Yes, thank you, Elam. Appreciate all that. Anyone else? I feel like pretty much all areas have been addressed this morning. I’m sure there’s much more that could be said, and maybe there’s areas that haven’t been addressed, as far as dangers in technology. But so many really important things have been touched on. You know, there’s obviously the big, bad stuff that can be accessed on the phone. But another danger — and I’m not trying to repeat, or add anything that John said, he touched on it well — maybe it’s meaningful, maybe it’s kind of enjoyable, maybe it’s, you know, chit-chat with people and whatever. But if we’re not very careful, we fill our time up with fluff. And then we don’t have time for more meaningful things. So that’s definitely another thing. If we can declutter our phones, and keep it down to the essentials, then we have so much more time to connect with people around us, and do other meaningful things. All right. Anyone else?

Continue to share — I’ll give you a little bit more time here. Another thing I’d like to mention is Brad Huddleston. John mentioned his name. I think that’s a really good source of information on, you know, addictions with digital devices. So I definitely recommend that. Yeah. And addictions on your device can, you know, can be simple things, or seemingly harmless things. But if we’re addicted, we’re in a danger zone — somewhat harmless or not, it’s still a danger zone. That’s right. All right. Thank you for that. Anyone else?

Yeah — and you should have probably mentioned, Brother Ephraim, that if anybody wants to say anything, all they need to do is unmute themselves. Yeah — just click the unmute button, then you’ll be able to talk. Yeah. Very good. Thank you, Brother. The whole mic thing — I don’t know what it looks like on your device, but there’s a little mic thing with a red X. If you find that, just uncheck that, and you’ll be able to talk. Very good.

I just thought I might mention here yet, Ephraim, that — what you had talked about, whenever we have, like — we can only handle so many things in our lives. So, you know, people have all these virtual relationships, whether Facebook or whatever, Instagram, whatever app we use. So it’s not like we’re gaining a lot of relationships. It’s actually away from other relationships. So it’s not like you can have all the personal, face-to-face relationships and all the virtual relationships. We can only handle so much. So let’s not fool ourselves thinking we’re doing it all, because, yeah, we’re filled up with virtual relationships.

Yeah, well said. All right. Anyone else? Feel free. Well, good morning. Can you hear me? Yes. I figured I would say good morning, introduce myself. I think I’ve talked to three of you that I can see — I haven’t talked to John, but to Elam, and to Ephraim, and Atlee. I’m Mike Steury. Thanks for having me on the meeting. I thought it was interesting. And yeah, I’ve thought about what you were talking about — I’ve thought about that a lot. That, you know, coming out of the Amish, the stand that they take against technology — I can see the dangers. I think it is a real danger. But yet, I agree that it is the time that we live in. It’s not anything we can do to change it.

So, you know, coming out of the Amish, they take the stand of just having nothing to do with it, you know, to keep yourself safe. Yet, then, what that does in our communities is, you have the youth that grow up, and they become — I don’t know how to say it, but they want to know what’s out there. They want to know what’s there. So they start sneaking around. And, just like in our communities right now, there’s quite a lot of young people on Facebook and all over, you know, behind their parents’ backs, still doing what they want to do. And I see that also as a danger — to not recognize and to not address the issue. So it’s still being done now, on a level that is totally uncensored. And I see that as a danger as well. But, you know, that’s the stand that they take — is to, let’s not have anything to do with technology, because it’s evil. Well, there is a lot of evil on it, I agree.

Yeah. Thank you, Mike. Good to have you on this morning. And thanks for sharing. All right. Anyone else? Okay. If not — it’s been good to be on here. God bless you all as we go through your day, and let’s serve the Lord with all our hearts.