Embracing Social Media Rather Than Ignoring It

Many of you guys do not know (or maybe you do) but for the past 45 (give or take) weeks, I have not had social media. I would download Snapchat and Facebook for like a day or two but would always end up deleting it. I thought that I was doing it for God but I never substituted the time with more Jesus time, so it really was just for me. I learned a lot during that time and it was personally a good season to not have social media.

About two weeks ago, I downloaded all my medias back. I really had peace in it and felt like it was a new season. Through the months that I did not have social media, I made some amazing friends at school, learned how to discipline myself, learned how to manage my time properly, and I realized that half of your friends on social media will not text you if you don't have it.

As you can tell, I learned a lot during my season of separating myself. I learned how God sees me and what He thinks of me, that helped me get over jealousy. A strong and real relationship between God and I were created and for that, I will always be thankful. The relationship that I have now with the Lord is so precious to me and I pray that it just grows stronger each day. Deleting social media REALLY helped me achieve these things.

But having social media back for these couple weeks has made me realize that maybe we should not be so quick to delete social media. I would go through phases of having social media for a little while and then I would delete because I would become too obsessed or I got jealous at girls. The thing that I didn't realize was that social media was not the problem. Social media was not the source of obsession nor the jealousy within me. The source of the jealousy and obsession was S I N. You know, that dirty little word that no body wants to talk about and no one wants to admit that they deal.

Well I have a little secret, I struggle with sin. We all do. You know why? Because we are human!! And the only way to deal with sin is through Jesus. That does not mean that you become perfect but you are continually perfected through Jesus and you're forgiven of your sins. Isn't that awesome?!

So, deleting social media was not getting rid of those sins, it just hid them a little more. It was not until my relationship with Jesus was strengthened that I started to lose those sins. I knew who I was in Christ so I didn't have to be so obsessed and jealous of those girls who appeared to be so "perfect." I knew what Jesus did for me on the cross; and even if I didn't have the most beautiful face or awesome body, Jesus died for me too! Jesus thinks I am beautiful and how dare I judge and say that his creation is less than? I am not God and if He says that I am worthy of saving, then I am worth saving. If He says that I am fearfully and wonderfully made, then I am fearfully and wonderfully made. I cannot nor can anybody else change what God says about me. How encouraging is that?

I had to delete social media to strengthen my relationship with the Father so that His perfection and grace could help me not sin. Now, I am able to scroll through my Instagram feed or click through Snapchat without being jealous because I am secure in whose I am. Does this mean that I never experience jealousy and other sins of the like? NO! I am human still but I know what name to call on to rebuke those feelings before I act on them.

So, I suggest to you guys, figure out whose you are. Learn more about God and who HE is. I promise, you will never be the same. And something that I have realized lately (little bonus point) is that when we read the Bible to see God and when we strive and pray for more of Jesus, that is when it all comes together. I used to (and am sometimes still guilty) look to the Bible to see what it said about me and what I can fix and use out of there to discipline myself. But what I didn't realize was that when we are continually looking to God, finding Jesus, that is when His grace and Jesus' perfection comes and invades our life! That has been life changing for me. Now, instead of opening my Bible looking for a new rule (I am OCD and love rules and structure, I know its weird lol) to follow, I am looking to see if I can find a new aspect of my Father because I am so engrossed in finding out more of who He is. Because once you get a little bit, it's never enough. You are going to want more of Him and guess what?! THERE WILL ALWAYS BE NEW REVELATIONS OF WHO HE IS!