Addicted to Computer Games?

Several years ago, I wasted one-and-a-half hours several times per week playing Solitaire on my computer… late into the night. I tried setting different limits. Three games. Fifteen minutes. But when I played, I often  kept playing past my limits (and sometimes to postpone getting started on what I knew I needed to be doing). Several times I “fasted” from computer games for forty days.  Soon after the fast, I was under control… for a while.  I finally simply removed the games from my computer and don’t miss having games there.

Then Facebook came along.

Initially, I had fun putting cute little critters in garden plots with a few people, but very quickly I thought: “What is the point of this?”  I stopped all those types of games fairly easily.

Now, I play Words with Friends on Facebook. I don’t spend more than ten minutes on any one day and usually less than that. I get to interact with friends and family I don’t see often and the games help to keep my mind sharp. I had a little addiction problem with Words with Friends at first when I wanted to procrastinate on things, but it’s not a problem now.

And then last year, I bought a Kindle Fire and put a Solitaire app on it. The addiction was back. I still like having games to sharpen my mind, but the games were controlling me.  Again, I set mental limits, but what helped finally was to be accountable to three people.  They all know that if I play at all it’s only briefly during “down time” and I’ll never play the games at the very end of the day. Having them know has stopped me in my tracks before I even get started.

How about you?  Have you been addicted to a computer game?  Have you found a way out?  God helped my friend Curt; he exchanged his game time for time spent discipling people through email.  Read how Curt did this…

Sharron gave up sugar in order to pray for and support her addicted son. Perhaps you can replace your computer game addiction with prayer for someone. You’ll be blessed by Sharron’s story.

How can you think differently about your computer game time? Can you spend that time in a way that honors God? What did Sharron learn about addiction that could help you?

“Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think.” ~ Romans 12:2a NLT

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About Sus

Sus Schmitt serves as a Technology Ministry Developer for Women’s Resources at Cru. Her goal is to equip Campus Crusade staff to have more effective ministries through learning technological skills. Her main medium to do this is through her blog, eQuipping for eMinistry. Sus also maintains a personal site, MikeandSus.org, and is active in ministry on Facebook. You can also find her on YouTube, Twitter  and Pinterest. Sus is enjoying her new role as a “nana” to a cute, little boy.

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Addicted to Computer Games? by Sus Schmitt is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.