Confessions of a news junkie

I have to confess to being a bit of a news junkie. It’s much to do with the work that I trained to do, my love of writing and, I suppose, a lifelong thirst for information.

I guess my first introduction to news was the 6pm news on BBC Radio 4 when I was a child. I’m not that old, but television never featured in my household – much to the amazement of my schoolfriends who talked about the latest episode of Neighbours every lunch hour.

The evening meal was bang on 5.30, 20 minutes after my father walked in from work. Radio 4 would be switched on at 6pm on the dot and we’d listen while my father washed the dishes and two of us children dried up (‘Girls, there’s another teaspoon here… !’).

Ironically, a key memory from that early introduction to world news happens to be the dulcet and authoritative tones of the then Russia correspondent Bridget Kendall, back in the days of Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev – when Vladimir Putin was just starting out on his political ambitions.

Today, my children enjoy – or suffer, depending on their mood – my obsession with news and current affairs. But I do have to exercise discernment when it comes to switching off. To be frank, asking me to switch the news off can be like asking me to chop off my hand.

But needs must. I’ve had to accept it’s not always a good thing to fill my mind with the sadness and tragedy that is in the world. And more so for my children’s sake. The Russia/Ukraine war has convicted me like never before that I should not always have rolling news on while I’m cooking, sorting the washing, tidying, writing…

The apostle Paul witnessed and personally experienced some pretty horrendous things, yet he exhorted the Christians in Philippi to think on ‘whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable – if anything is excellent or praiseworthy…’.

What I hear, my children may hear; what I see, they may see. Is it wise, I have to ask myself, to expose the young and spiritually and emotionally immature minds in my household to the terrible events we hear about every day?

Accessing the news does have its advantages: a child dashes into the living room or the kitchen because they’ve overheard the imminent launch of a space shuttle or they want to see the Queen show the nation the cards she received on her Platinum Jubilee.

But the nature of news induces anxiety. Our children and young people are worried. A teen hears a mention of a potential World War III and of fears that President Putin could resort to nuclear war. ‘Could this really happen?’ they ask.

The pandemic years have already fostered a climate of fear and mental instability in many of our children and young people. They are more vulnerable; they understand more than ever their own mortality.

In his letter to the Philippians, Paul encouraged the saints to ‘not be anxious about anything’. Let’s help ourselves and our children not to be anxious, by exercising wisdom in what we unnecessarily expose them and ourselves to.

Of course, it’s getting a balance – we know we are in the world and not of the world. Our children cannot be protected from knowing and understanding the times in which we live, and as parents we have the God-given opportunity to provide our children a Scriptural perspective on what is happening in the world.

From the beginning of time, God is sovereign and makes wars cease when He so chooses. He is working His purposes out. There is no fear in Christ and in Him alone our hope is found. Isn’t that the best news we can expose our children to?