The Kitchen Table: I'm BORED!.....Part I

Lately I’ve noticed that there are so many women (young and old) who are proclaiming that they are bored. (Bored: ‘n’ dull. Dull: ‘adj’ not interesting, tiresome, boring.) Facebook really seems to be a venue where people feel most free to express how “bored” they are. Just this past week, a young woman wrote, “I am bored out of my mind.” Another was out shopping with someone and posted via their phone, “I am sooo bored, I can’t wait to get out of (and named the store).” Wow! This is kind of scary if you ask me, so I would like to probe beyond the surface to see what is behind this great spirit of “boredom” that has crept upon us.

There is an old saying, “Idle hands are the devil’s workshop.” There is an awful lot of truth to that, and old folks knew that when I was coming up. You were kept busy, and you learned early on that if you were bored at a particular time, you kept it to yourself or only shared it with a peer. Why? Because if you told your mother, grandmother or aunt, that you were bored they quickly found something to occupy your time. They didn’t pop a movie in for you to watch (no vcr or dvd back then), they didn’t put you in the car and drive you to the mall, (weren’t any around at that time) and they sure as heck didn’t try to entertain you. No! What they did was find a chore for you to do. I remember having to take all the dishes out of my mother’s overcrowded china cabinet and wash and dry all the glasses (and there were a lot of them) and then clean the glass shelves. I’m pretty sure that was the last time I spoke the words, “I’m bored” within earshot of any adult, until I was grown.

Being “bored” doesn’t necessarily mean that you have nothing to do. What you are doing could be “boring”. I think that when we are in a rut, life can seem pretty dull, boring or uninteresting. Doing the same old thing over and over has a certain monotony to it. So what can we do about this dilemma? Are we locked into things staying the same? I don’t think so; I feel there is plenty we can do about boredom if we choose to. And not only can we do something about it, but we must! I say that because being ‘bored’ and not having a plan to changes things, leaves us open and unprotected for mayhem and foolishness to show up. Often the spirit of “I’m bored” is BFF’s with “I’m lonely.” And these two emotions unchecked can often equal trouble.

Once, “I’m bored” and “I’m lonely” settle in, the end results can be devastating. Wives that have committed adultery can attest to that. Women who now find themselves addicted to pornography and masturbation will also second that. And we must not leave out all the single mothers who became a “single mom” out of feeling bored and lonely. Women drink out of boredom and loneliness. We overeat out of boredom and loneliness. And what this all boils down to is the great propensity to get into trouble when we feel our lives or boring and or has a sense of loneliness to it. We try to fill the void without looking at why the void is there and what is lacking in our spiritual lives versus our emotional lives. Again—a formula for Trouble!

It seems that we humans become easily bored today because we are not very creative when it comes to our every day lives. We are creative in that the Bible tells us that at this time in the world we will be creating new kinds of sin, but to feel that your life is boring, means we are not tapping into all that is available to us. Truthfully, I am very glad I grew up in a time when you were forced to think, be creative in finding ways of entertaining yourself, enjoy being by yourself and made to sharpen the tool of common sense. In today’s society, of 24/7 commerce, dvds, internet, chatting, IM messaging, tweeting, emails and social groups such as Facebook, we seemed to have lost the art of finding solace in being with oneself. I watched a show not to long ago that talked about how this latest generation is not that creative. We are not creating things that will change the world and the way people live as generations past. Forget all the gismos I just mentioned, everyone in the world does not have access to these things on a daily bases or not at all. There are millions of people whose main concern each day is not, “OMGoodness, where is everyone? None of my friends are on Facebook!” No, they are concerned if they will have fresh drinking water and if they will get to eat. Those of us who are fortunate enough to have all the above amenities are very blessed but in some ways it has made us lazy and spoiled.

I know that the internet is necessary for end time prophecies to fall into place, but do we always use it to strengthen our lives and that of others is the question we should be asking ourselves? The Internet has a lot of good to it, in that people who are homebound do not feel so isolated from the outside world, the gospel of the Messiah is preached 24/7, people are earning high school and college degrees online. Families have been reunited and best of all, with Skype, soldiers get to talk to and see their families. I am not putting the internet down by any means, but we do have to get real about it. Like anything else, “that overindulgence” that Sasha wrote about Monday is also part of the high tech scene for us.

Being on the internet all hours of the day and night and ignoring our responsibilities is becoming a huge problem in the workplace and our homes. How many of you have had to rush around before your husband or kids came home to get dinner on the stove or make up the bed because you jumped on Facebook just for a minute but spent half your day commenting or playing a new game? How many of us are stealing time from our employers? Lunchtime and break time or okay, but if you are on the clock, should you be on Facebook if it is not your job to monitor the activities of Facebook? No, we shouldn’t. Countless businesses have had to spend money to block all social sites from their networks because of employee misuse. I hadn’t planned on going there, but I guess it was something that needed to be said. Sorry for all of you who are going, “Ouch!” But you have to love God for His correction! ~Smile~

At times I find myself on the internet surfing or on Facebook, when I should be doing something else; and especially when that something else is something I really don’t want to do. Yes, I am guilty of wasting time on the internet. But I’m not one who is bored with life even when I find myself in a season that is not of my liking. I’m also not a lonely person. Was this always the case? Not at all. When I came to the Lord and lost all my friends it was a very lonely time for me. But having a child at age 40 was the most boring, restricted and loneliest time of my life. Anyone with a newborn (especially a preterm one) knows that your days and nights are full just caring for that baby, yet I was still bored and very lonely. Mainly because it was not the life I had been accustomed to. I no longer had freedom to come and go as I pleased. I felt like a bird whose wings had been clipped and put in a cage for others enjoyment and pleasure. But it wasn’t long before, Jeremiah 29:11, kicked in…For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future

Tovah was shy of turning 9 months old when there was a big shift in my life and I brought my first woman in crisis and her newborn into my home. And I must say as I look back over the past 17 years, bored has not been my problem. LOL!! If anything, a little too much excitement for a girl looking at 60! And it hasn’t stopped yet. My point is that if you’re finding yourself amongst the hundreds of women in the Body of Christ who are “Bored!” Then it is time to look at why, before your boredom walks you into something you could live to regret.

See you in 2 weeks to talk about how to deal with “boredom” in ways that bring honor to God and you.