Question Box - Good News Magazine

Question Box

Good News Staff

"Is it wrong to spend time with such diversions as crossword puzzles, card games, and the like?"

   God has placed us here to learn to make RIGHT decisions and to carry them out.
   To keep our bodies and minds at peak efficiency, we should occasionally relax and enjoy a diversion from our daily routines. Not all diversions are the same. They do not all have the same stimulating effect.
   For example, an occasional session with a crossword puzzle is all right as a mental challenge. It may sharpen the mind and develop one's ability to use words more effectively. Some other common diversions can also be useful forms of relaxation when used in moderation.
   On the other hand, many people who enjoy diversions sit around for hours completely engrossed in them. They waste valuable time that could be more profitably used in prayer, study, in physical work or something else that the average person really needs.
   In determining whether or not it is wrong to occasionally relax with one of the various mind sharpeners that fit in between these two extremes, we must consider the result of such participation. How does it affect you as an individual?
   Is it a relaxation, or an obsession?
   If you can take it or leave it alone, an occasional session might be all right. But if it grips, holds you, to the extent that it tears down your will power to resist or wastes your time, it is coming between you and God. It is an idol you should forsake. It is wrong to succumb to the power of entertainment in the way we should submit only to God.