"Fun" is not the main criteria - JESUS is

How do we determine what activities we require or permit of ourselves or our family?

The main criteria is NOT, "Will this be fun?" nor "Will my kids be willing?" nor "Is this the cheapest option?"

The main criteria is,
Does this activity help me to serve God and serve others?

Will this activity increase my love for God, or distract me from God?
Will it increase my love of myself?

Should we not ask this - in regard to entertainment? And education? And work/chores?
The main question is not, "Would this be fun?" but rather, "Would this help us to serve God and others?"

Should not our starting point be, "I love my Savior, and therefore, I will do ________ out of love for Him and for His Name on the earth." ?


Does this activity help make my brain more or less equipped to serve God?
(I.e. internet browsing for no purpose, and input of too much unnecessary information, makes your brain "a mile wide and an inch deep" - not taking time to think deeply about anything; taking in information for the sake of information, rather than in order to benefit your life; filling your mind with useless books.)

Can the Holy Spirit live well in the mind I am cultivating by this input?

1 Corinthians 6:19-20
Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.

Can I do this activity as an act of worship?

1 Corinthians 10:31
So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.

1 Peter 4:11
…in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.

What biblical principles can be referenced to determine whether or not this is a good activity for me (mentally, spiritually, physically)?

1 Corinthians 6:19-20
Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.

Philippians 1:20-21
…it is my eager expectation and hope that … now as always Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.

Philippians 1:27
Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ…

Would Christ do this activity?
Would someone see me doing this, and say, "That is Christ living in her"?

Galatians 2:20
I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

Colossians 3:17
And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.


If you love your Savior - your Master - then it will not be a hard thing to strive to point to Him in all that you do.
It will not be a sacrifice to give up "pleasures" for the sake of service and worship - for the sake of making Jesus known! He loved His Father and was all consumed by that; His one love was the Father; His one goal was to do the Father's will. And He did it gladly out of love, not grudgingly, wishing He could live "for fun" instead.  He knew that real joy came from obedience, and He wanted that for His disciples also.

John 15:10-11
If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.

We live by faith, not by sight.
We must believe that real, lasting joy is found in obeying - rather than living by sight, by senses, that tell me to pursue my own temporary pleasures.

If we let our kids drown themselves in temporal pleasures, we are inoculating them against finding their real joy - in Jesus.  Who will want to do the hard work of self-denying service if they have lived indulging themselves as children?  Do we not want to train them that self-denial is the normal part of life? - and that earthly pleasures, though they are gifts from God to be enjoyed as part of serving Him, cannot hold a candle to the joys found in Christ?

None can follow Christ without denying himself:

Matthew 16:24-25
Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life [for himself] will lose it…"