A decade ago we cut our ties with television. This life change came on the heels of an investigation involving our five-year-old son. At kindergarten one day, Luke (now 16) told another five-year-old a tale of being kissed by a teenage babysitter. The other five-year-old’s parent went to the authorities with the information and an investigation ensued. To make a long story short, there was never any teenage babysitter involved, we think our son dreamed up this scenario after watching one too many Friends episodes on television. At the time, we didn’t think Luke was old enough to pay attention to what we watched at night. Apparently, we were wrong. So at the end of this investigation, when I sobbed in relief that our son would remain in our care, and the case was closed, we said that’s it. NO more Friends in our home, ever! We decided to banish television altogether and raise our kids the old-fashioned way with books, the Bible, and a fireplace to gather around for comfort.

But once the shock wore off after the investigation, I REALLY missed TV. I missed my cooking shows. Missed the weekend football games. Missed all that awful news of bad things happening around the world. I missed us sitting together as a family bonding over funny shows like Friends. I now realize a five-year-old, along with his two preteen sisters shouldn’t be watching a show like Friends, but at the time it felt okay. Those Friends were so friendly, and I missed them. How were we going to bond now as a family without our boob tube holding us together?

After praying about this, Scott came up with a brilliant idea. We’d read the Bible out loud every day as a family for one entire year. A WHOLE year. And can you believe we actually did this with three squirming kids and a brand new baby in our arms?! And by the end of that year, the year Scott became a believer, miracle of miracles, I was off crack cocaine TV and addicted to my Bible. And I found I could actually cook dinner without Rachel Ray’s help. Imagine that!

So when we built our dream house in the country nine years ago, a year after giving up television, we told our builder we didn’t want any TV hookups put in the house. He looked at us like we’d lost our minds. “You must put television cables in your walls. What will you do if you ever try to sell this place? People require TV. We can put the hookups right over the fireplace. This is the thing everyone’s doing now.” “Absolutely not,” I said. “I’m hanging a cross over that fireplace.” But we reluctantly agreed to wall cables in the kid’s playroom off the living room. To this day, we’ve never hooked a TV into those cables. Not that we even need cables now with the digital TV evolution.

So after ten years with only DVDs playing on our TV in the playroom (select movies found a place in our home), I can honestly say getting rid of cable television was one of the greatest things we’ve ever done for our family. Sticking to the rule of no TVs or computer screens in any bedrooms has also been a blessing. And that cross over our fireplace in the living room hangs there today, dusty as can be, but reminding me Jesus reigns in our home.

Now a days for entertainment we download Duck Dynasty to watch as a family in the kid’s playroom. Duck Dynasty comes to us one day late, but that’s a small price to pay for the sanctuary of a home not run by the almighty boob tube. On Sunday afternoons if there is a football game on Scott really wants to see, we head up to my folk’s house to view the game there. I must admit that every four years I grieve not seeing the Olympics, but other than that, I don’t miss TV at all. Okay, that’s not true. I miss Rachel Ray. I really liked watching her cook.

So now there’s a new battle brewing in our home. Smartphones, the Internet, and iPads. Nearly every day, Scott or I say, “Put down that iPad. Go outside and be real boys. Get dirty. Catch frogs. Climb a tree.” If we let them, our boys would spend way too much time playing digital games now that our summer harvest is over and all our fruit has gone to market and the boys are no longer working in the orchard.

Believe me, I know how hard it is to raise a family today with all these screens: TV screens, computer screens, smartphone screens, iPad screens. I want to scream, ENOUGH! I will not let the boob tube or the Internet or this digital day and age destroy my family. I will fight this battle! My family is worth it.

Your family is worth it, too. There are things you can do to help. Put a basket on your kitchen counter to hold everyone’s phones. Make sure the basket holds the phones more often than you do when you’re home. Have “no phone zones” in the house like the dinner table and the bedrooms at night. Instead of mindlessly watching television or browsing the Internet, go outside with your kids and spouse. Discover the beauty of your patio or your lawn or your front porch. Walk to a park together. Make it a habit to gather somewhere as a family in the great outdoors (without phones) and play the grateful game. You go around your family circle, everyone saying what they’re grateful for today. And don’t forget to thank God for the will and the wisdom to say “NO” to today’s digital madness and “YES” to being a family that plays, prays, and stays together.

If you have any feedback, or good ideas of how to bond as a family while forsaking cell phone and Internet insanity, please post in the comments. I’d LOVE to hear from you!