RUN LIKE A CHAMPION

Sammy Tippit: Yesterday we had Dr. Walt Larimore share with us in our devotional time about obesity and talked about that. I want us to continue looking at the physical aspect of our health and how we can develop a healthy lifestyle. Walt, thank you so much. Let me continue where we left off yesterday when we were talking about obesity.
You left off talking about rest. With young families, I find this a really difficult thing. A man is going to work. He has a family. If he has little kids waking up in the middle of the night, how does he deal with rest and getting the proper amount of rest?
Walt Larimore: Well, with young children, it can be a huge problem. If there’s one thing that disturbs family unity, family meals, and family rest more than anything else, it’s that monster of the screen: the television screen, the video screen, the video game screen, the smartphone screen. The screen occupies huge amounts of time. In fact, the Kaiser Family Foundation just released a study showing the average child in America…average…spends 10 hours per day of total media time. It’s huge.
Sammy: That also affects the exercise. Kids used to be out in the yard playing. I grew up… We’ve have track meets in the summer. You know, we’d make up our own track meets. We had bamboo poles and doing all sorts of things. We were out there running and playing. Today they’re at the screen. Not only that, but at work, how do we get away from that? This is a lifestyle change. We’ve talked about that. How do you make that lifestyle change?
Walt: You have to decide that’s going to be important, that family is going to be more important than that screen. It means turning off those devices. Now it may not be totally turning them off but beginning that process of cutting back, of understanding there is no screen time…none…not one minute…that’s healthy for a child 2 years of age or less. As children are over age 2, no more than two hours. As they increase their screen time, every measurable health concern goes down.
For our families, turning off that television during our family mealtime, of cutting back on it, maybe even taking a week without it. What the research shows is as we turn off that screen, we begin to turn on family relationships. That can increase health.
Sammy: One of the things I struggle with quite honestly that I’ve found was I come in from a long day at work. I’m tired. I didn’t want my mind to function. It’s so easy then to say, “Oh, I’m going to watch…” Then what happens is instead of just watching the news, I find myself going the whole evening watching it. What would you say to a guy? Probably a lot of guys are just like I was. We’ve made some changes, but what would you say to a guy?
Walt: Well, the DVR is one good technology because you can skip the commercials. You can watch a 30-minute program in 18 minutes with the DVR. It also allows you to select ahead what you’re going to look at as a family or as a couple. Of all the options you have, beginning to narrow that down and making your time and your family time more of a priority, increasing that, decreasing the screen time over time to become more highly healthy.
Sammy: One thought I just had as you were sharing that is a man and a woman can go out for a walk. It’s a great time just to get away from everybody and everything and just share their hearts, what’s happening.
Walt: Or with the kids. Some one-on-one time. You know, families will talk about that quality time with the kids, but what they fail to remember is quality time with kids and quality times with a spouse only occur within quantity time. You cannot program it. You can’t preset it. You have to devote to it.
Maybe that’s why Scripture teaches even way back in the book of Deuteronomy that we’re to spend time teaching our children. That’s time in the morning, time in the evening, time through the day.
Sammy: The principle, I guess, is the same as the food principle. We switch out foods. You know, instead of my chocolate chips, I have grapes for a snack. The same thing. We switch out some of that screen time for our family time and doing things together.
Walt: I’ll tell you a really short story. When Kate, our oldest, turned 6, my daddy called because he was concerned about how much time I was spending at work. All he said, Sammy, was this. He said, “Congratulations.” I said, “For what?” He said, “One-third of your life with her is over. As a 6-year-old, one-third of your life with her is gone.”
Boy, God really convicted me that I needed to begin to spend time. I cut back my work time. I increased the kiddo time. I gave Kate a half a day. I gave Scott a half a day. It was just their time. I made less income, brought less home, but spent more time with them.
When Kate became an adult, she told a large conference (I went to hear her speak), “Daddy, you gave me a lot of presents at Christmas, on birthdays, Easter, holidays. I don’t remember very many of them, but the one thing I do remember was when he gave me the gift of himself.” I’ll never forget that, and I hope our listeners will remember that principle.
Sammy: One thing I would encourage you to do is to take a look at your schedule, your time, and reprioritize. That’s perhaps the greatest change you’ll make. An investment of your time into your family is an investment of your life, the greatest investment you’ll ever make.