Not-So-Smart Irritation

Psalm 119:11
“Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.”

I am completely relaxed. I have my work under control. I have a cup of coffee with me. And Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony is playing in the background.

Then there is an ugly sound. It is a pinging sound, and it comes from my smartphone. It is a notification.

Now, I have gone to great trouble to turn off most of the notifications on my smartphone because they are irritating. But it could still be a message from SMS or Facebook Messenger. Of course, it might be welcome – it could be from one of my adult children and, therefore, will make me smile. But more than likely it is an irritant; somebody who wants a piece of my time. To be fair, they have no idea that I have tried to relax.

It seems I am not alone. Researchers at Nottingham Trent University in England have discovered that 32 percent of all smartphone notifications cause negative reactions to the recipients. How has this happened? Smartphones are supposed to make our lives easier. Why have they caused such stress to people?

Other notifications in our lives appear to come from above. These, too, sometimes cause us stress. God may be prompting us that our words to our spouses this morning were harsh, and we need to repent, or maybe, as a father, I have exasperated my son.

There may be notifications from another place that I want to ignore, but I do not want to ignore what is from God – and the only way to know what is from God is to know what He says in Scripture.

Prayer: Help us to store Your word in our hearts, Lord, that we might not sin against You. Keep us in Your path by causing us to follow Your word always. Amen.

Ref: One third of smartphone notifications make our mood worse, research shows, < http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/2017/10/02/one-third-smartphone-notifications-make-mood-worse-research/ >, accessed 9/20/2017.

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