Trinity school families are attempting to reconnect more deeply with God, their families and their friends by ditching their devices for the Tech-Free Lenten Challenge. 

While it's hard to imaging a world without screens and devices, Trinity Principal Mark Brown is encouraging families to become aware of how much time they spend on their devices and use at least some of that time to do thins like pray, spend time with their parents and siblings and have meaningful face-to-face interactions. 

"We know that the increasing amounts of time on screens can contribute to feelings of anxiety, stress and can interferer with sleep. It can also impact the student's mental health and limit the development of certain important social skills. We are seeing those effects in the classroom today. By stepping away from technology for a period of time, we can create space for peace, reflection and connection--both with God and with those around us," said Brown. 

For this challenge, students received an outline, with different levels of participation for each grade level. The levels are designed to be achievable and rewarding, allowing families to adapt the tech-free idea in a way that suits the need of their families. 

It's not just a challenge that students and families complete on their own. For our Wednesday morning chapel services, the fifth through eighth grade students are spending the time discussing how their weeks went, providing each other encouragement and spending time in scripture and prayer and learning all of the ways they can connect with God. 

"We love and care for the well-being of our students beyond the classroom and always desire to partner with our parents to provide opportunies outside of their school day," said Brown. "We will be following up with a students and parent assembly from Protect Young Eyes on Wednesday, April 9 at 6:30 p.m. in the Community Center. We also encourage parents to read 'The Anxious Generation,' which is a book our teachers are wrapping up reading as well. There will be opportunities for parents to have open and honest discussions about this with myself and other staff."

Brown encouraged not only students, but also parents and members of the church congregation to model this behavior as they work through this challenge. 

"My prayer is that you may be blessed with meaningful conversations with your kids about this topic as we were also open and honest about our own parental screen time usage," said Brown. "We hope this challenge will reconnect us with God and each other during this season of Lent. By stepping away from our devices, we can create space to grow stronger in our faith and strengthen our relationships with those we care about."