Lily Girls Magazine

By Mallory Barks

Last year 15-year-old Kate Moore won $50,000 in the National Texting Championship.

Certainly I could use $50,000, but unfortunately, I’m not addicted to texting. Contrary to just about everyone I know, I would much rather talk on the phone.

That’s not to say I don’t text at all—how else would I keep in touch with my text addict friends? Plus I have to admit, I do get just a little bit excited when I hear that beep and I see that tiny envelope.

It’s pretty much a given that if you have a cell phone, you also have texting. Texting has created a cyber world with its own language (“Idk, my bff Jill?”), its own time (“She is so slow, I could have sent eight texts by now”), and its own etiquette (Don’t text in the movie theater).

Here are the basic rules I’ve learned from my text addict friends:

My roommate once attempted to tell her boyfriend about a new dress she bought, but she accidentally sent the text to her mom.

Rule #1: Make sure you send the text to the right person.

I usually find that it’s easier to say what I really think in a text because I don’t have to look in the person’s eyes as I say it. It’s easier to flirt and it’s easier to be rude, but whether good or bad, I find I’m more comfortable typing things than saying them.

Rule #2: Remember that there is a real person at the other end. Don’t text anything you wouldn’t say in person.

A few days ago my roommate complained about being really tired, saying she had stayed up until 2 a.m. texting a boy. I asked why she didn’t just go to bed, and she said that he wouldn’t stop texting her. My next question: “Why did you keep texting him back??” Of course rules of courtesy still apply, but if it’s 2 a.m. and you have school the next day, it’s ok to end the conversation! Texting should not deprive you of sleeping, eating, or studying.

Rule #3: You don’t have to answer every text.

Before everyone had unlimited texting, one of my friends consistently went over her limit. Not just a little bit over, but $40 over, $50 over, $60 over… As punishment, she had to pay the difference.

Rule #4: You can survive on however many texts you are allowed per month.

When my roommate and I are talking and I hear her phone vibrate, I know what’s next: “One second,” she says, as she stops to respond to the text. Even if it wasn’t a deep conversation, I’m left frustrated that I am less important.

Rule #5: Don’t interrupt a conversation to text.

The Issue

The problem is not texting in itself—texting is not inherently bad. But just like anything else, we can become addicted. The problem occurs when texting becomes so important that we push other things aside.

Do you find yourself checking your phone first in the morning and last at night?
Does your homework take twice as long as it should because you’re texting every few minutes?

Can you go anywhere without your phone?
Do you stop to text during church and during your devotions?
When something really good or really bad happens, do you immediately text your friends or pray to God?

When we make sacrifices in order to do something, that thing becomes an idol. When something becomes more important than everything else, it becomes our god. Applied to texting, if we sacrifice our tithe to pay the phone bill or sacrifice time with God to text, we have built an idol. If our whole lives revolve around our phones, they have become our god. In Exodus 20:3 God says, “You shall have no other gods before Me.” God doesn’t say that to deprive us of fun, but because He is jealous for our attention and He longs to be the One that satisfies us.

Satan often uses the harmless things in our lives, like texting, to consume our time and our thoughts in order to keep us from God. We must deliberately make time to spend with God, putting everything else aside to show that He is our Lord. Then when we come to Him like that, Jesus promises that we will never desire anything else (see John 6:35).

Once our priorities are straight and the Lord truly is our God, then texting becomes just a fun way to talk to our friends…and maybe win $50,000.

“Whether you eat or drink (or text), or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” -1 Corinthians 10:31