The decision has been finalized. You're the first to know. You can tell all your friends now, you can stop scouring the news. Here they are: Bonnie's Top Three Android Apps of 2014.
#1. Fighter Verses.
I discovered something while I was working at the Westin. I can listen to the Bible while cleaning and get through multiple books in one day. It leaves me with a nice sort of I-listened-to-the-Bible-today feeling. And... not much else.
When I discovered Fighter Verses, everything changed. I love this app for many reasons. It uses the ESV- yes, God speaking to me in my own, modern language. I don't talk the way people did in 1611, and I believe that God would want me to understand every word He says to me.
I also like the fact that the narrator has a nice, normal male voice. I've listened to some truly awful Bible narrators, notably the one associated with the Remember Me (Bible memorization) app, a prissy female who serves the meat of the Word with a chop, chop, chop.
The best part about Fighter Verses, though, is that when you tap Listen to Verse, it plays that verse (or chapter) ON REPEAT. And this, THIS is the secret.
Listen to most of the New Testament in one day= remember nothing. Listen to one or two chapters on repeat for hours= think about the same truths over and over, come close to memorizing them, start applying them to my life.
Although I often succumb to Spotify or Conservative Talk's siren call- on the days I open my Fighter Verses app, I hear from God and it's so, so, so worthwhile.
The app has several other strategies to help you memorize. I only use the repeating audio because it's so useful with the mindless kind of work I do. You can use the other methods to memorize other versions, but the audio is ESV.
You need a WiFi or mobile data connection, but once the audio starts looping, you don't anymore. I think it initially costs two or three dollars. It's worth it.
This app is number one simply because, if I had to delete all but one, this is the one I would keep.
#2. Quizlet
This app is basically the same thing as Fighter Verses, but secularly. (Well, it's used for academic purposes. I suppose you could use it for memorizing Bible verses, but the audio is chop, chop, choppy on this one too.) I made flashcards for French vocab, put them in play mode and listened to them while I worked. You can use it for any academic subject, and listen to your flashcards or study them while you run, wash dishes, drive, or do that other thing you do. The app syncs with your online account, and you can download other people's cards- even look up the textbook for the class you're taking and find them that way. It's all quite easy and fun. Quizlet is helping me learn French (which, unlike Spanish, is extremely new to me, so it's no small task) and for that, I give it the number two award.
#3. Self Control.
The internet has sort of taken over my free time- and sometimes my not-so-free-time- for years and years. I'm interested in everything, and the answers to all my questions are just a google away. Plus creative projects, hilarious videos, fascinating opinions...
It's a huge problem because as much as I love to learn about everything, I'm not supposed to spend my life in front of a computer screen reading randomness.
The internet is also a dangerous place- it's full of evil. You know it's true- and it's hard to avoid it once you enter. It's strewn with the thoughts of people who are vitriolic against God. While I love talking about God with people who are kind and/or open minded, I can't deal with people who mock Him or belittle the Bible anymore. I've always had a sort of morbid fascination with the opinions of God-hating atheists, and it's kind of dragged my spirit down, made me feel alone, even made me feel that Christianity is ridiculous, although I know that's not true. And I don't think God ever intended for me to read the lies of the lied-to. He intended for me to be in Christian community, to get together with someone and tell that person "You're not alone, I'm a Christian too, and this is what God is doing in my life, what's He doing in yours?"
My last post was against over-the-top book and movie censorship. Now I want to say one more thing about that. Christian people seem to think that books and movies and most especially TV are the really worldly dangers. But I don't hear many Christian people speaking against the internet-as a "standard" anyway. I know it seems indispensable. But IT is the real danger. T.V. can be a huge time waster, and I don't think it's really helpful for anyone, but at least if you have a family with you they can see what you're watching. Books, movies, a few curse words, like I said, sorry but I don't really see the problem there. Smartphone with internet- MEGA time waster, CONSTANT option of seeing and reading all kinds of terrible, harmful things. You watch a DVD, two hours later, it's over. You watch a six minute YouTube video, it suggests another one only for the next, oh, infinity.
Maybe your "standard" could be no internet when you're not with someone else. Now, THAT would be a useful "standard".
It's not really my "standard", as I dislike the word and concept of standards. Maybe I could say, it's my rule for myself. I don't believe in standardization as every Christian is different. You're different than I am. You may have the internet and only get on it once a day to check your email. Maybe Googling random things bores you to tears. Maybe you'd as soon watch dandelions grow as watch a funny video on YouTube.
I-said-all-that-to-say-this. I evicted my charter modem and installed a bunch of phone apps like a dictionary, thesaurus, cookbook, Yellow Pages, and many more. I can still do useful things on my phone without having access to Google or any internet browser. I have a mobile data connection for apps that use internet (I'm writing on a Blogger app right now), but I can't browse or get on YouTube because of the Self Control app. It blocks everything except the exceptions you specify, for the amount of time you tell it to (for me, from 12 AM to 11:59 PM) and you're unable to change it during the blocked time.
If I try to get on chrome, for example, I get a green screen with the words "It's Study Time, Now!"
I wish there were not a comma between "Time" and "Now", but you can't have everything.
It's free.
This is the app I shouldn't need. It's fake, forced self control. One-tap virtue. Still, I know now that I will not be wasting time on my computer or on my phone. I may watch a movie or read a book. But I'm not getting on the internet. I can't. And that's a good feeling.
It doesn't work with iPhone, which fact alone has made me an android girl forever. I'm free of the strange and random wilderness floating all around us. (I wonder how the internet really works- but now I can't Google it. I'll have to think of it as a delicate, elusive mystery.)
And so, I'm giving Self Control the coveted #3 Android app of 2014.
So there you have it. Fighter Verses, Quizlet, Self Control. The apps in Google Play that help you NOT to play.
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