Digital Media is here to stay…and it is growing…as I have prayerfully spent time asking God to help me encourage anyone using this trending social “animal,” I hope that the words He has given me will help you use it as a positive in your life and not a negative.
First, let me say that if you are my personal friend on Facebook….I will always put my best, positive foot forward on social media. Why? Because there is enough negative in the world without adding to it. Also, for most of my adult life I have realized being negative breeds negative. Living in negativity is a place I do not desire to live no matter what comes along in life.
What I can say for sure on the Back 9 is that adversity comes to all people–young and old. Adversity comes and sometimes stays longer than at other times. Sometimes it is very temporary, but we all have it and live it. Adversity shows up in many different areas of life–finances, relationships, abuse, sickness, unfairness, betrayal, etc.
You may experience some but not all the areas mentioned or maybe other areas not mentioned but WE ALL experience adversity…..So, if you are a social media fan as I am ……let me just say…guard against the thought that my life or the life of anyone else is free of adversity, problems or extreme life challenges, even if it is not displayed on social media.
For me and many others…life’s struggles are private…not for public display or scrutiny…or public opinion. Struggles are dealt with in that designated quiet time with Jesus. Or possibly with the wise counsel and prayer from others who are in our close circles where we can meet face-to-face rather than face-to-media. On occasion, because you get to choose your friends on Facebook, you might feel led to request prayer on an issue, which I have felt led to do on occasions. You deem your network to be your friends. After all, you did choose to “friend them!”
I do embrace the scripture that states, “Where two or three are gathered together there I will be also,” (Matthew 18:20). The key to remember with social media is this: if they are your friend on social media, then either you have requested them or they have requested you and there has been an “acceptance” in which both parties had to agree.
There is always the danger on social media…for people to infer a negative point of view from pictures or printed words. You may choose to post things with positive, good intentions but others see it through different eyes. That is and always will be a potential hazard. You cannot control the opinions or inferences of others but you can control your actions, words, postings….and ask God to help you in all of it.
In the age we live in today…and I don’t foresee it changing…we need to guard our “jealousy” button… that “anger” button… that festers. It can manifest itself in all kinds of ways in our mind, emotions and actions. Satan has a field day when WE CHOOSE TO ALLOW NEGATIVE emotions to take over and we end up walking into a “web of sticky,” complete and unnecessary “YUK!”
I encourage you to give people the “benefit of the doubt”. To look at others and their postings with a “loving eye and heart”. To pray for them if you find something offensive…and to even “rejoice with them” for all the good that you see in their lives…..knowing all the while…most people choose only to post the “good”.
Digital is here to stay. It is how we choose to receive it, filter it, and use it that will make the difference. I love the phrase, “When good men/women do nothing, evil prevails.” We can all choose to do good, think good and seek the greater good of others ….not just with social media but with all areas of our lives.
At one point in my life I possessed a very critical spirit. Thankfully, God has done a supernatural work in me, to give me the vision to seek and search for the good in people, constantly working to allow Him to pry the 2’x4′ out of my own eye……this keeps me so busy and self aware…that my time has turned inward and caused me to be much less critical of others. Choosing to love… not hate……even if someone does not agree with me. I fall short at times. I am a continual work in progress….accepting that perfection is not an option for me while on earth…but seeking the “Perfect One” is!
I choose to focus on:
Knowing…I serve a Great God who is all-knowing and all-powerful.
Knowing…He who began a good work in me will carry it on to completion (Philippians 1:6).
I encourage you to do the same thing………just know all people at some time in their life experience a “pain/adversity” that you do not see on social media and that you know nothing about. If you choose to believe that, you can tell yourself….”I am going to love that person…..and, if necessary, pray for them.”
If you are a social media fan….allow it to be a positive in your life…not a tool of the enemy!