Growing up, my favorite sitcom was Full House. DJ Tanner and I were the same age and we both had best friends who lived next door. Every Friday night at 8 P.M, I sat in front of my t.v. to see what was going on in the Tanner house. I watched DJ, Michelle and Stephanie grow up into adults and have all their problems solved in exactly 22 minutes.

Now I have a family of my own with seven kids ranging from 17-2. Life is busy in my Little Red House. Between preparing for high school graduations and potty training my youngest, those Friday nights seem like a life time ago. Life was simpler back then. With a turn of the dial, the TV was turned off and forgotten. Life was black and white.

Not anymore. Technology has made wondrous leaps and bounds. We can accomplish things we only dreamed about 20+ years ago. Facetime and smart phones allow us to connect with people on the other side of the world with one swipe of our finger. But, with this giant leap for mankind, comes much adversity.

I have had a heavy heart lately regarding the internet. I have been praying about and hiding from it. I stopped blogging. I pulled myself away from my online communities and focused on my work. What once was a girl who could pour her heart out on the keys daily, now was someone who didn’t even have the words to make a sentence. My blog page sat empty…

The truth is, for me, the internet turned into noise… static.

Loud static.

With every click, I ran across blog after blog, e-book after e-book, each one promising me something different. Each blog guaranteeing me a perfect home, marriage, meal, relationship with Jesus. 5 easy steps. That’s all it took. All I had to do was read it.

Fluffy words that made me feel good for only the moment, long, flowy sentences that were so pleasing to read but left me sadder and empty the moment I got up from my computer and turned to see the reality of life: messy kids, a shedding dog and stacks of to-do lists…

My kindle sits there full of catchy-titled, unread, $1.99 books – more things looking to fill my mind and steal my time….

So, I simply stopped.

I stopped reading blogs. I stopped writing mine. I stopped following my favorite writers and conversing with my blog friends. I turned down invites to attend conferences and broke all of my writing commitments. I stepped off the platform that was overcrowded with noise and left.

And then I began thinking… What if the enemy was using the very instrument that has been blessing us as a curse?

What if his goal is to flood our minds with SO much information, how tos and 5 easy steps that we have no time to sit and hear HIM!

What if the roaring lion actually disguised himself as a sweet, innocent lamb? What if we were actually looking to the internet more frequently for answers to our problems and not Jesus? What, if we as a society got so over-run with noise that we were not able to hear HIS VOICE?

And that is when my heart got heavy. That is where I was able to pinpoint why I was running. Because I know I was guilty of this too.  Our life is so noisy that we can’t hear the one voice that will heal. The ONE voice that holds the answer, the only voice that matters: Jesus.

As I put down my iphone, I realized I couldn’t remember the last time I had picked up my Bible. It was lost in the mess of my night stand… books I wanted to read and my latest Pinterest scarf project. Right there… right where I left it last… waiting for me to pick it up.

It felt so good to have my old Bible back in my hands again. Reading those words were like medicine to my hungry soul, a craving I didn’t realize I had until it was satisfied.

I was away from the noise of the world and I could hear Him again. There He was, waiting for me… patiently. And It felt wonderful.

“Oh be careful little ears what you hear,

  Oh be careful little eyes what you see

 ‘Cause the Father up above is looking down in Love

 Oh be careful little ears what you hear..”