I have a little verse calendar that sits on my bathroom counter top and this weeks verse was Proverbs 11:16 – “A kindhearted woman gains honor.” I’ve read over it like a million times waiting for the Lord to show me its significance. Then the other day I was thinking about how I have been way too focused and consumed by social media lately. Wanting those likes and follows in order to prove to myself people still think I’m “cool” or “pretty” (as if a double click could even tell me that.) Then I thought back to this verse, and these questions hit me. Do I want people to see me as kindhearted or popular? Do I want to gain honor or gain follows? Geez I sure hope my answers are kindhearted and honor but some days thats not the case.
It’s crazy to me how much pressure is put on us by social media. Always trying to keep up with the new trends, buying clothes we can’t afford so that people compliment us, taking a billion pictures of ourselves and editing the crap out of them so that we don’t even look how the the Lord created us to look. It’s harder then it ever has been to be a young adult in the world. There is so much focus on appearance, and even if you never worried about how you look, you spend 10 minutes on Instagram and you will after that.
I’ve been reflecting back to my time on the world race and how my phone worked every few weeks when I was able to get wifi for a few hours and how I absolutely loved not being glued to it all the time. I left it in my room most days unless I needed it for pictures and I never thought twice about it. Then the chances I was able to actually use it, I didn’t spend my time scrolling through Instagram or Twitter, I used it to talk to my family and post on my blog about how good the Lord was. Now that I’m back in the states, why does it have to be any different? The thing is… IT DOESN’T!!
I’m writing this blog to challenge you (and myself.) Challenge you to leave your phone at home or put it on airplane mode for the day. Or delete some social medias or set timers for how often you can be on them and let the Lord fill that new free time with himself. It’s amazing how light and free I felt on the race when I was wearing pants with permeant dirt and holes in them and no make up. There wasn’t any shame that I didn’t look like Blake Lively because I wasn’t spending my time or money trying to be. I liked the compliments of “wow I can really see the Lord working in you” or “dang I’m so impressed by how on fire for the Lord you are” rather than “those jeans are so cute” and “omg I love your hair.”
Take the day to decide if you want to spend your time and energy into being “pretty” and “cool” or if you want to spend it trying to look more like Jesus. Thats not going to be an easy thing to choose immediately but over time the Lord will give you the confidence to let go of the pressures and cling to him instead.
