Snapchat!! I love it! It brings a smile to my face every single day now. This is usually a sad time of year for me and I get a little blue. But now I praise God for technology. I get to see our children and others everyday through “Snapchat!” If you do not know what Snapchat is, allow me to explain. It is an application you download onto your smart phone. You can take a picture of yourself, or anything, type a short message and send it to another person. When you receive it, you open it and look at it. It only lasts for up to 10 seconds and then it disappears. Our kids and their friends send me the funniest pictures and write the funniest things. It allows me into their world. It is just a glimpse, but I get them a couple of times a day. Just a short picture and a funny message. Sometimes it will be about what they are eating for breakfast, their sweaty bodies after insanity or a run, or how they look when they first get up. It may be a picture of the grade on a test that we prayed about the night before or Brewer sending me a picture of his paycheck, and sometimes it is even what they are reading in the Bible. I love it, absolutely love being included in their day. Their friends Snapchat me as well and some friends my age share too, especially my friends that live out of town. When they send me pictures of their day, it makes me feel so normal!!!
I have a friend who lives in San Francisco, but is now moving to London. Her name is Kathy. She and her husband, Dave, went to Clemson with me. Now that we both have kids in college, our kids have become friends at Clemson. Our oldest sons are now roommates. Through our kids, we have reconnected and now have stayed connected thousands of miles away through “Snapchat!” Just before Kathy’s youngest daughter, Savannah, entered Clemson, she was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes. Because our oldest sons were great friends at Clemson, and Thomas is a friend too, we developed a “deeper connection!” Last year Savannah was sick with strep throat and wasn’t getting better quick. I was alerted about this by Kathy and, on my way to visit my parents, I stopped by to check on Savannah and “eye ball” her for Kathy. It was a complete joy to love on her and be Mama B to Savannah.
I am so thankful for technology and God’s divine appointment! I, by the way, do not believe in coincidences. I share this story to first shed a positive light on technology. I realize technology can be good or bad. It is all in how we look at it. Our pediatrician once told me when I was asking his thoughts about the “evils” I had heard of video games, “Video games are not a bad thing. It is only if YOU ALLOW THEM TO BE. Too much of anything can be bad!” I will never forget his WISE WORDS back to me. He was pointing out that I had control of which games they played and how much time was spent and it didn’t have to be a negative. Proverbs 25:11, “Like apples of gold in a setting of silver is a word aptly spoken.” His simple comment has carried me through so many decisions with our children. There are a ton of people in the “Back 9” that I hear daily poo-poo technology, and that is their choice. I have looked at technology and realized there are many evils but there are many positives. I have chosen to embrace it and use it as a tool to enter our “kids’ world”. I have done the best job I can in learning technology, involving myself and understanding it. Making this choice and remembering advice I received years ago in “Growing Kids God’s Way” about “joining your kids in their world” has paid great dividends. Of course, I pray and ask God often to help me parent on the evils that can come with almost anything, but have chosen to focus on the positive by joining them in the way they like to communicate. It has been significant in having a VERY POSITIVE AND MEANINGFUL CONNECTION WITH MY KIDS AND THEIR FRIENDS!