Author A. W. Tozer once wrote, “Let us beware lest we in our pride accept the erroneous notion that idolatry consists only in kneeling before visible objects of adoration, and that civilized peoples are therefore free from it”
Isn't that the truth? How many of us sit smugly thinking that any discussion of idolatry doesn't apply to us because we don't have statues in our homes?
Let's get down to basics. An idol is anything that takes the place of God in our hearts. OK, so maybe your computer or your television doesn't actually take the place of God in your heart, but does it consume so much of your time and energy that you have no time left for prayer and worship or time in God's Word?
This is a particular challenge for work-at-homeschool moms, or even moms who just do one or the other. I can recall homeschooling consuming my days - and nights - when my kids were younger, as I obsessively planned lessons and activities, graded papers, and worked with them individually memorizing math facts, or states and capitals, or doing book reports. It choked off time for housekeeping, time for my husband, time for myself, and time for...God?
Hmm. Without God I couldn't do any of it, and yet every year I would have a period of time where I burned myself out, cracking the whip and focusing on academic excellence to the exclusion of everything else.
Then there were the days - way too many - that I became absorbed in some facet of internet marketing: working on a website, blogging, or talking to prospects on the telephone, and this consumed my time and energy and choked off time for housekeeping, time for my husband, time for myself, and time for...homeschooling...and time for...God?
Idolatry. It isn't just for the heathen anymore.
That hurts. It's true. We can set so many things in the way that we can't see God for the to do list.
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