📱How to Redeem Your Phone Time! Read how I am using my phone to draw closer to Jesus and encourage others!
Discover more from Sheri's Intentional Inspirations Newsletter
📱How to Redeem Your Phone Time! Read how I am using my phone to draw closer to Jesus and encourage others!
Intentional Inspirations Newsletter - 12/3/22
I have an exciting topic to cover in this week’s newsletter — how to redeem your phone time! I don’t know about you, but do you find yourself absorbed in your phone for way too long each day, only to find yourself discouraged and wanting more? Well I have some encouragement for you today!
You can turn this around and use your phone to help you in your Christian walk and to also strengthen relationships with family and friends. Below I go into great detail how I am doing this and I am excited to share it with you. I pray that you are blessed and encouraged!
We decorated the house for Christmas last night and just have our front porch to finish tonight or tomorrow afternoon. Then I can start wrapping gifts and getting them under the tree. Next week I’ll share some pictures of our decorations. I think I have enough packed into this newsletter!
May each of you be encouraged this week to draw closer to Jesus!
I am about finished going through this Redeeming Your Phone Time study from The Daily Grace Co. It has been SO good for me! I am sharing in this newsletter some of the things I have learned and some resources for you to consider. If you find yourself absorbed in your phone for way too long each day — then this study is for you! I am finding ways to use my phone to draw me closer to Jesus and to encourage others too. You can grab this study for only $5 right now! They are having a $5 and $10 sale, so you may find a few others things to get too. Lots of great ideas for Christmas gifts.
As I mentioned above, after going through the Redeeming Your Phone Time study, I am learning new ways to use my phone. Above is a screenshot of my home screen on my phone. Notice at the top that I have 3 folders labeled - Bible, Sermons | Devotionals, and Encourage Others. In these folders are apps I am using for each of these areas. I thought I would share some of them with you and you can decide if you want to implement any of them in your own phone time usage. I am limiting only these apps on my home screen so that I am encouraged to use these apps instead of scrolling through Facebook or Instagram or Youtube!
It is hard to explain, but my mind has shifted in how I think of using my phone. It is now becoming a tool to draw me closer to Jesus and encouraging others. No longer is it a time-waster, where I am absorbed in current news, endless videos I think I just need to watch, etc. When I pick up my phone, I now have these things on my home screen to encourage me to use my phone in a productive way!
Ok…I am going to break this down so you can see how I use each of these folders.
Bible
This folder is for any apps that I use for Bible reading plans, Bible study, Scripture memory, etc. Here are the apps I have in this folder:
ESV Bible App - This is simply the ESV Bible that I can use to look up a verse if I want to, or read.
Olive Tree Bible Study App - This is another app that has the whole Bible on it. But it also has a “Verse of the Day” feature you can enable, as well as Bible Reading Plans. I am currently using one of the reading plans so I can track what I have read.
Blueletter Bible App - Another great app for deeper Bible study.
Remember Me - This an awesome app to use to memorize Scripture! It has lots of different ways to practice and memorize.
Sermons | Devotionals
This folder is where I keep apps and quick links to places where I listen to sermons, read devotionals, watch videos, etc. Here are the apps in this folder:
Daily Grace App - This one could probably be in this folder and the Bible folder. But I put it here. Daily Grace has some amazing Bible studies that I have been enjoying and the app has additional resources and chat communities to go along with the studies. They also have blog posts and articles to read as well.
Athey Creek App - (Here is the app in the Apple store.) I have been following Athey Creek for quite a while now. My Uncle and Aunt who live in Oregon attend this church. I love the expository preaching and listen as much as I can!
NBC Sermons - This is the Sermons page of our church, Newton Bible Church. I love going back and relistening to sermons.
VCY.tv - This app has a lot of things - from radio shows, Bible conference videos, Christian movies, sermons, and more.
Berean Call App - This is a fairly new app for me. They have some good Bible conference videos, audio books, newsletters, and more.
Encourage Others
This folder has apps that help me stay in touch with friends and family so I can encourage and pray for them. Here are the apps I have in this folder:
Voxer - Voxer is a walkie talkie app that allows you to leave voice messages for people. This is a great tool to keep in touch with family and friends.
Echo Prayer - This is a new app for me and I am loving it! I can put my prayer requests in that I am praying for and then simply open the app each day when I have my prayer time so I can remember to pray for each request. You can set timers to remind yourself to pray at specific times too. Love this so much!
Ink Cards App - I have not used this one yet, and am not sure I will. But I have it in this folder to consider. It allows you to create pretty cards with personalized photos and messages and this service will print your card and mail it for you! I still like writing and sending cards in the mail myself, but this may be an option for people.
Family Album - This is a neat app you can use to share photos with family. If you don’t like putting photos on social media for family members, you can use this free app to upload photos or videos and share them with your family or friends. I downloaded this app and set up an account. I am not sure yet if I will use it or not. If my kids were younger I could see using it to share recent pictures and videos, but since my kids are older I’m not sure I’ll use it. But it is there for now for me to consider.
Miscellaneous Apps
I do have a few others apps on my home screen that I didn’t want to put in a folder because I access them often. I will share about those below and how I am using them:
Church Directory - This is an app that our church uses for our church directory. It makes it really easy to look someone up and have their phone number and address available in a few clicks. I use this often to send text messages or emails of encouragement to those the Lord puts on my heart.
Band App - The Band app is an app that our homeschool group is using (instead of Facebook). It is also used by our homeschool sports teams to communication practice and game information to parents. But on a more personal level, I set up a group on Band (about 40 ladies are in there right now) where we keep each other accountable for daily Bible reading and making healthy choices. I consider this not only a blessing to me as I need the accountability and encouragement, but a way for me to encourage other ladies.
Spotify - I use the free version of Spotify to create playlists of worship music to play when I need something uplifting.
AntennaPod - This is the podcast player that I use. I have lots of different podcasts I listen to, from sermons to current news.
Whew! I hope you enjoyed reading through this. I pray that you maybe found something you can use to encourage you to use your phone to grow in our relationship with Jesus and to encourage others.
🎄Homemade for the Holidays Posts
If you missed some in the “Homemade for the Holidays” series I have been sharing, you can see links to the complete series here. Lots of great gift giving ideas for you and your family!
The 12-Week Holiday Planner is an awesome resource to help guide you through the 12 weeks leading up to Christmas - giving you weekly to do lists, recipes, gift ideas, and so much more.
PLUS!!! I am offering an unthinkable deal for you! When you purchase the Holiday Planner and go through the check out process, you will gain access to a special offer to grab my Holiday Ebook Bundle (below) for only $3!
So not only will you have the Holiday Planner to guide you through the holiday season, but you will have these 6 amazing ebooks filled with activities, notebooking pages, recipes, family projects, and more!
The Holiday Planner began the first of October, so go grab this amazing deal now!
Just a quick reminder that you can find all my weekly newsletters archived over on Substack here. Feel free to click on over and browse through past newsletters and posts. If your Inbox gets overloaded, you can always just go to my Substack page to find them.
Praying for each of you, that you are finding your rest, your hope, your strength, in Jesus alone!
Take care. Don't fear. Trust God!
Blessings,
Sheri
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