{"id":97833,"date":"2026-09-09T14:33:49","date_gmt":"2026-09-09T19:33:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/?p=97833"},"modified":"2026-09-09T14:33:49","modified_gmt":"2026-09-09T19:33:49","slug":"is-my-hobby-becoming-an-idol","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-my-hobby-becoming-an-idol\/","title":{"rendered":"Is my hobby becoming an idol?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\t<h2>Question:<\/h2>\n<p>Dear Sir,<\/p>\n<p>I have a question about an issue I have been having and can&#8217;t figure out how to handle it.<\/p>\n<p>I have been doing a creative hobby, but I wasn&#8217;t doing it alone; I used AI. So it took up a lot of time and became unhealthy because I kept doing it excessively and used AI a lot, so now I am concerned about idolatry. I have decided to correct my behavior and stop using AI because of this concern. But I am wondering whether it is still okay to do this creative hobby without AI, and what the problem might be. Was the problem that I was overly dependent on AI, or did the creative hobby itself become an idol?<\/p>\n<p>I have two opinions:\u00a0I don&#8217;t really want to stop it completely because doing so would feel like bottling up my thoughts and feelings, and it is hard for me to keep everything bottled up without an outlet, so that is why I am asking. But\u00a0more importantly: I want to be repentant and make sure God is first place for me, so if this creative hobby is not something I should be doing any further, I will accept it and move on.<\/p>\n\t<h2>Answer:<\/h2>\n<p>As explained in &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-is-idolatry\/\">What Is Idolatry?<\/a>&#8220;, just because you strongly like something or spend time doing something doesn&#8217;t make it an idol. Idols are worshiped, served, and followed. If your hobby is controlling your choices in life, then there may be a problem. AI is just a tool. It can speed some things up, but it isn&#8217;t perfect. It makes frequent mistakes.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Question: Dear Sir, I have a question about an issue I have been having and can&#8217;t figure out how to handle it. I have been doing a creative hobby, but I wasn&#8217;t doing it alone; I used AI. So it took up a lot of time and became unhealthy because I kept doing it excessively&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[20],"tags":[1446,304],"class_list":["post-97833","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-hobbies","tag-idolatry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":49286,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-is-the-difference-between-idolatry-and-obsessions\/","url_meta":{"origin":97833,"position":0},"title":"What is the difference between idolatry and obsessions?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 13, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hello! I just read a question answered on your website about idolatry:\u00a0Is having a symbol of Christianity idolatry? In it, idolatry was defined as \"anything you turn to for guidance or security.\" While that makes sense, to what level of guidance and security are you describing?\u00a0 You see, I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":45902,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/should-christians-be-involved-in-expensive-hobbies\/","url_meta":{"origin":97833,"position":1},"title":"Should Christians be involved in expensive hobbies?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 5, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hello, Thank you for your tireless work towards teaching God's Word and helping people understand the truth!\u00a0 I can appreciate the amount of hard work necessary to provide the amount of material found here.\u00a0 It truly is a great resource for those of us looking for biblical answers to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":34887,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/i-repented-of-a-foolish-vow-and-broke-it-anyway-so-what-do-i-do\/","url_meta":{"origin":97833,"position":2},"title":"I repented of a foolish vow and broke it anyway. So what do I do?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 19, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hello, I am having real trouble with something at the moment, I fear that I have made a vow\/oath to God that I really don't want to keep. The vow does not contain anything sinful, I fear I said \"I would give up my hobby.\" The hobby is not\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":30813,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-was-there-an-idol-in-davids-house\/","url_meta":{"origin":97833,"position":3},"title":"Why was there an idol in David&#8217;s house?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 1, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: In I Samuel 19:13, why was there an idol in David and Michal's house? I know Saul erected a monument for himself in Carmel (I Samuel 15:12). Did Saul and his children worship other gods? Answer: The Hebrew word\u00a0teraphim\u00a0is often translated as a \"household idol,\" but some translators, such\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":84175,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/ai-is-misquoting-you\/","url_meta":{"origin":97833,"position":4},"title":"AI is misquoting you","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 6, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hi brother, I'm contacting you after stumbling upon this Google search result, which I only discovered because of curiosity! I think the answer to this question has possibly been selected using AI. However, it uses a quote from your website, but it is totally out of context, as this\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":35050,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-it-wrong-for-a-christian-to-visit-a-place-of-idol-worship-out-of-respect\/","url_meta":{"origin":97833,"position":5},"title":"Is it wrong for a Christian to visit a place of idol worship out of respect?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 8, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hello, I had this question in mind for a long time and I feel you would be the best person who could answer this based on Scripture. I stay in India, and we have a multicultural society with multiple religions and festivals celebrated among friends and neighbors. It is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97833","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=97833"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97833\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":97870,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97833\/revisions\/97870"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97833"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97833"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97833"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}