PHONE CHECK

Five different iPhones each displaying a different use; maps, internet, apps, music and phone call.

I check my phone approximately 25 times a day. Really? I knew it was high, so I ran an experiment – a very sophisticated experiment. I counted how many times I checked my phone on Monday and Tuesday and again on Wednesday and found the average.

What am I checking for?

A love text from my boyfriend (aka husband)?

An email from my agent saying Paramount wants to make a movie from one of my books?

Actually, my first data hit every morning is turning off my alarm clock. The second is checking the emails that accumulated overnight. In between showering, eating a bowl of granola and stacking, I’ll also check the weather (chilly and sunny today with a high of 53 degrees) and my calendar to see what I’m supposed to be doing today. I’ll hit my Bible app for my morning prayer time and play music on my run. I snapped pics of pumpkins and costumes this week, and texted them to friends.

But honestly, sometimes I’m on my phone just to kill time. I’ll check emails or Facebook or Twitter, because I’m standing in line or waiting on hold or in the midst of a socially awkward moment when I’m standing alone at a party or a soccer game. The phone acts as an excuse for me to be standing there by myself.

What would happen if instead of habitually checking my phone, I absorbed my surroundings? Struck up conversation with a stranger? Let my imagination play? What if I prayed?

The Casting Crowns song, “What if His People Prayed?” runs through my head as I write this.

That would be really cool - if each time I checked my phone I prayed? And sometimes I could pray instead of ever sliding the bar on my phone, others I could pray over the person who texted or called or emailed or I could pray for whatever’s on my mind. What if I added twenty-five moments of prayer each day?

Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. Mark 11:24

Pretty powerful, huh? Whatever we ask in prayer, if we believe we’ll receive it, it will be ours! And if I prayed 25 more times a day? And if everyone reading this post prayed 25 more times a day? The possibilities are endless.

What do you check on your phone the most? How often do you check your phone in a day?