Reading at the Table

 

“Victoria,” Anna’s voice rang out over the general hub bub of our supper meal.  “You shouldn’t be reading at the table!”

Victoria looked up from the book she was reading – Beetles, Lightly Toasted – to make a face at her sister.  She slowly closed the book and put it beside her on the table.

Elliot piped up.  “Well, you read books at the table when you were Victoria’s age,” he said, with a voice full of accusation.  Clearly, Anna was putting a burden on her sister that Anna had been unwilling to bear at the same age.

“I tried,” Anna admitted, “but Mom and Dad wouldn’t let me.  They said I had to wait till after we were done eating to read a book.

I had to smile.  I suppose our family is a bit of a throwback.  In recent studies, only about 30 percent of families eat a nightly meal together.  The rate went up a bunch during COVID, but since life has returned to normal, people are back to running around and doing lots of activities and the end result is a more fractured meal time.

More than that, the idea of reading for fun has dropped considerably.  A number of surveys done recently have shown a serious decline in reading.  Kids under 11 read a bit more than other groups, but once Americans become teenagers, the amount of reading falls off a cliff, with only 14 percent of teens saying that they read for fun on a regular basis.

Lest I cast stones at kids alone, in a recent survey, a quarter of adult Americans admitted they had not read single book in the last year.  This includes print, electronic, and audio books.

I wonder why reading rates are declining.  Maybe it is just that people don’t have as much leisure time as they used to.  Maybe it is that folks fill what leisure time they do have with a mixture of movies, television, gaming, and internet usage.  I’m guessing it has more to do with what we do with our leisure time than that we don’t have any.

Much of what is served to us for entertainment is mindless.  It is easy to absorb, amusing, and requires little effort or thought.  After a draining day at work, who really wants to sit down a crack open a book to wade through its pages in search of something interesting or entertaining?

I do believe reading is still important.  It expands our minds and imagination, it adds to our vocabulary, and it even helps us to learn about ourselves and the people around us.  Roughly 80 percent of Americans believe that they should read more – they just don’t think they have time to do so.

I remember reading a blog where the author shared that he didn’t see Bible reading as a command of Scripture.  Technically, I suppose he was correct.  We are to study the Bible and meditate on its words, but for most of history, the idea of reading the Bible every day was not possible for most humans – most of them didn’t even own a copy of a Bible.

Since I am delving into statistics, only about 10 percent of surveyed Christians said they read the Bible every day. 

Once again, there are different reasons for this, but I am guessing that they are the same reasons that people aren’t reading books the same as in the past.  The Bible seems dry and boring compared to the latest Netflix offerings.  The words that shook the Roman Empire to its core two thousands years ago no longer shake Americans free from their focus on media.

I wonder if much of the angst about the world and coming election could be assuaged if the people of God would stop focusing so much on their phones and screens and instead would turn their attention to the promises of God.  Of all people, Christians should have joy, regardless of what is going on in the world around them.

Two thousand years ago, Jesus told His followers, “And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh.” (Luke 21:28)

I wish more people would put down their phones and pick up their Bibles and begin to read.  That would be a blessing – even if they take them to the dinner table with them.