Netflix is a Work of the Devil

Dear God,

I’m addicted to Netflix and I need your help to quit.  This may seem like a funny request to the world, but Netflix is destroying my time for prayer.  Lack of prayer in the spiritual life is like a man without hands and feet.  He won’t get anywhere.  I do not want to remain stagnant in my spirtual life.  Unless my Virtue of Temperance is stronger, I need to stay away from Netflix.  Please do not be disappointed in me, Lord, for asking this one exception: when my wife wants to watch Netflix with me.  Her temperance is much stronger, and she would be a saintly example for me.

I needed to look up CCC 1805 to remind myself of the Four Cardinal Virtues:

1. Prudence: the virtue that disposes practical reason to discern our true good in every circumstance and to choose the right means of achieving it
2. Justice: the virtue that consists of the constant and firm will to give their due to God and neighbor
3. Fortitude: the virtue that ensures firmness in difficulties and constancy in the pursuit of the good; the resolve to resist temptations and to overcome obstacles in the moral life
4. Temperance: the virtue that moderates the attraction of pleasures and provides balance in the use of created goods

Although I am not necessarily strong in the first two virtues, I know that I’ve often failed to resist watching Netflix.  The temptation to be lost in an episode or movie, or the excuse that I’d learn something from a documentary, is too great.  God, I need help to grow in fortitude.  If I cannot resist Netflix, how can I hope to overcome the devil’s stumbling blocks on my path to become holy?

So for the next 40 days and 40 nights, my God and Savior, I would like to stop watching Netflix.  Even if my wife wants to watch a movie, I’ll suggest that we play a board game.  Lord, I know that I cannot succeed without your help.  I pray that the Holy Spirit will have mercy on me and give me the strength to glorify you, Lord.  I humbly ask this through Jesus Christ, Our Lord.  Amen.