Like...you don't really think about it. It's kind of just a nonchalant motion that you don't even realize you are doing.
My nonchalant motion?
Checking Facebook...whatever that means.
After being challenged by one of my closest friends to a social media blackout...I had to take the challenge.
I actually had been feeling like it was time for the last week or so anyways. So this was just a confirmation of what I feel like God was (probably screaming) quietly whispering to me.
Starting Monday, I haven't been on Instagram or Facebook.
There are a few things I have to admit, although it is a little embarrassing.
1. I didn't realize how many times I automatically started to type in Facebook when walking by my computer.
Not because I was necessarily looking for something. Not because I was planning to post anything.
But just because.
2. I don't even know half these people!
True story. I have no clue how many "friends" I have, but I was realizing that somehow, creepily, Facebook had decided whose life stories I would see, and whose I would not.
The weird thing is, the people I actually am real live friends with? I was totally missing all their posts!
The people I don't even barely know? I could tell you every detail of their lives.
3. Facebook sucks the life out of you and creates a feeling of laziness and frustration.
Another true story. I remember a while back when there were a few people who had hurt me (they didn't invite me to their birthday party...errr...unfriended me. Same thing) so I blocked them.
This just meant that as far as I was concerned on the Facebook world, they didn't exist. And to them, I now did not exist either. And when I did that, I could not believe how much better it made me feel! No more getting that feeling in the pit of my stomach when I saw them hanging out with some of my current or old friends! It was a release. And it felt so good.
4. Facebook and Instagram are a breeding ground for discontentment.
There are so many photographers I follow, and I definitely have noticed myself lacking creativity, getting irritated with the I-booked-this-client-so-I-am-better-than-you mentality I was seeing going on. Then I found myself having to unfollow people who I am actually friends with because I was getting such a bad feeling from their pious posts! (maybe they didn't mean it like that at all, it's just how it was coming across!) I love my life. I love my family. I love my clients. I love what God has given me...until I see what you are doing. Until I see what your family did for you. Until I see what client you booked. Then it's all downhill from there.
So. The moral of it all is always the same for me. Pretty much no matter what the issue.
Self-control.
There are so many verses on this important issue. And God obviously says it better than I ever could!
...Renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age
Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
...make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control
I am not saying that I am necessarily going to never get on Facebook again, or never instagram again.
What I am saying, is that I am finding myself texting my friends more, instead of checking out their lives on Facebook.
What I am saying is that I am finding myself feeling more content.
What I am saying is that when I am spending less time listening to a million other voices screaming in my ears, there is more time for God's voice to be more easily heard.
What I am saying, is I can do that.
I can live without it, and I think I am better when I do.
Being self-controlled is always the better choice.
Can you do it?
You should try it.
You should try to take those little seconds, that add up to minutes, that add up to hours of Facebook and Instagram...
and invest them into reading your Bible.
Into spending time with your husband.
Into reading books with your kids.
Into working on your business or ministry.
Into just. being. still.
I can do that.
I can do that.
Peace out, Facebook. You were never that nice anyways.
#getyourlifeback
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