Live a life that makes you look up

​I often hear 'our kids spend too much time staring at their screens.' I won't argue that. But many times when I hear that, it comes across as blaming those awful screens - or those lazy kids - and the hard truth is, neither of them are to blame.

I took the boys for a hike Saturday. I told them up front, this is a challenging climb. It's only a mile, but the mile is nothing but up! Here's a promise, though - I said - when we get up there, you'll be glad you made the climb.

There were times in that climb when I was needing someone to remind ME I'd be glad I was making the climb. It was a little more 'up' than I'd remembered.

But up we went.

There was a moment at the top I think I'll always remember. We stepped out on the rocks that overlook the Shenandoah Valley. The colors were showing off. The mountains in the distance were gleefully layering shadows over the scene. The clouds looked like they'd been painted perfectly in place. Just for our moment.

Without me having to say look at that boys, I looked over and the boys were looking at that.

We all were.

Before I knew it, we all had our phones pointed at the valley and not at our faces. We were standing their taking pictures of our memories, not looking in a screen at someone else's.

Author Richard Louv says that screens give us a “know-it-all state of mind,” where having any piece of information at our fingertips has made the world too “small and known.” He says this robs our children of the chance to grow their imaginations.

I agree with him. I would only argue that isn't just a kid issue.

I think kids spend too much time in screens because too many adults have lost their own senses of imagination. I think too many adults have sadly determined all they need to know about the world is found in a screen and not discovered in the world.

This summer I spent some time helping my friends Meg and Celia on their Appalachian Trail adventure. I got to see some views of the world I'd never seen before. The spot I took the boys to Saturday was a spot I discovered on my own after my own sense of wonder was sparked while hanging out with Meg and Celia.

I didn't make the boys put down their screens and go for a hike. I sold them, with unbridled excitement, on the possibilities of a world they'd discover outside of their screens.

'Limiting screen time' is not the answer to keeping our kids out of their screens. Selling them on the world outside of it is. Nagging our kids about what they won't find in a screen isn't the answer to keeping our kids out of their screens. Showing them a world that takes their breath away outside of it is.

Our kids haven't been sucked into a world of technology because they believe the world of technology is more beautiful and exciting than the natural world. For many of them, it's simply the only world anyone has ever shown them.

If our kids are spending too much time looking down at their screens, the answer isn't telling them to look up. The answer is showing them a world that makes them WANT to look up.

We owe it to our kids to take them to that world.

We owe it to ourselves.....