[Consultation] My Child Is Playing Computer Games Too Much. What Shall I Do with Him?
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December 05, 2010 |
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Acknowledge the existence of the evil spirits that are dragging people into committing various sins! Repent of having not having performed the duty of parents! Pray for your children fervently and earnestly! Help your children to be able to distinguish between good and evil and exercise self-control!
Q "My 10-year-old son is enjoying playing computer games too much. Recently I heard the shocking news that a middle school student had murdered his mother who had accused him of playing computer games too much. He then committed suicide. My son is young, but I am concerned about the increasing amount of time he is playing computer games. What shall I do?"
The Internet is one of the primary sources of information available today. The Internet provides us with many conveniences, but at the same time it also causes social problems. Some websites carrying gambling and suicidal deaths cause people to lose all their possessions in a day or to commit suicide. One such social problem of the internet is the increasing number of young people who are becoming addicted to computer games.
The world is divided into two realms. There is the visible and physical world and the invisible and spiritual world. Air is not seen but nobody can deny that it exists. In the same way there is the spiritual realm. The spiritual realm is divided into two worlds: the world of the light and the world of darkness. The evil spirits in the world of darkness are under the leadership of Lucifer.
Evil spirits under the leadership of Lucifer are driving people into more sins through mass media. Through TV and the Internet in particular, secular culture is spreading very quickly and people are easily and increasingly becoming saturated with sins.
Those who are addicted to playing computer games also are exposed to and filled with the nature of violence. Since most of characters that appear in the computer games display the characters of violence and cruelty, mild children increasingly turn into violent children. Those children make their own world and isolate themselves from the others. Those children also fail to consider others in everything because of the lack of the ability to effectively communicate. What they cannot gain or achieve in reality they seek to gain in the world of virtual reality. They also have a tendency to fall into heroism.
They sometimes live in the virtual world and sometimes live in the real world, eventually they may fail to distinguish between the two worlds. The actions they see in the virtual world are revealed in reality one by one. Finally those actions develop into unacceptable social behavior and crime.
From the time they were born and while growing up, men acquire what they need for social interaction and survival through the senses and the processes of seeing, hearing, learning and resulting behaviors. But when they do not go through the proper procedures of growth, they develop deficiencies in both intellectual and physical abilities and capabilities that may be far from common people emotionally. Such a condition is termed a 'deficiency of the body.'
Suppose there is a child who is not supervised by his teachers and parents but eats, sleeps, goes out, watches TV and plays computer games as he desires. It means such a child has not cultivated the strength or ability to control himself through proper education. That's why he shows the deficiency of the body and cannot exercise self-control even after he has grown up.
Schools and homes should teach children to cultivate the strength and ability to exercise self-control over external stimuli. When parents allow their child to play computer games, they have to help the child to play for less than the agreed upon time. This not only helps keep the agreement with his parents, but also helps to cultivate the ability to exercise self-control. Next, parents have to help their child understand which is more important, what he wants to do at the moment and what he has to do. Even if the child doesn't like it, he should be trained to study or do assigned household tasks at the decided time. Through this process he can cultivate patience.
It is even better for parents to provide him with a good environment to study.
Thus, when parents help their child cultivate self-control, the child can escape from getting addicted to playing computer games. Parents have to supply students with proper conditions for study so that they can enjoy studying and concentrate on study without hindrances. If the parents often openly quarrel, their child feels uncomfortable and cannot concentrate on studying.
When parents understand and serve each other with love, it brings peace to their child and establishes favorable conditions for study. If all members of the family have a time and place to read books together, this will be an even better condition for him to cut off time spent playing computer games.
 When a child fails to exercise self-control, if his parents and teachers read the Bible, memorize the verses and pray along with him, it is another good way to foster favorable conditions.
A few years ago I stayed at Calgary Manmin Church in Canada for more English study. In Canada, schools close at 3:00 PM and after school children return home, eat desserts, do homework, and play. I stayed at the home of Deaconess Haengmi Lee and saw her two sons playing computer games just after returning home from school. I often told them they should avoid playing computer games, but it had no effect.
I thought they wouldn't cut off playing computer games because they didn't pray. And I began to help them read the Bible, one chapter of each book every day. They also memorized one verse and prayed while kneeling on the floor. I explained to them the titles they should pray with and helped them pray. At first it was for 5 minutes. And I led them to pray longer—10 minutes, 20 minutes and one hour. I also led them to listen to Senior Pastor Dr. Jaerock Lee's messages and explained to them about their questions. Their faith gradually grew and later they stopped playing computer games. After coming back from school, they first did their homework, read the Bible, memorized the verses and listened to Dr. Lee's sermons. They couldn't quit playing computer games by themselves. So, I tried my best to do something together with them and planted the hope for Heaven into their hearts. It was effective and it worked.
Now the two boys have returned to Korea and are attending Kimhae Manmin Church. They are studying hard to become workers to help Senior Pastor Dr. Jaerock Lee with his ministry.
Written by Deaconess Angela Choi
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