"New Year...New Me.." --->ever heard someone say this catchy little phrase before? Or better yet, have YOU ever caught yourself rambling it on to people who you find yourself chattin' with about this new year that's finally made it's way into our lives? I certainly have...and I don't necessarily think it's a bad phrase..."Old habits die hard" as the saying goes..and what better excuse than a brand new year to start over again where perhaps you have failed in trying to kick the ugly out of your life?
What did I do on my first day of 2014? Spent time with my fabulous, fine, smoking hot hubby of mine of course (hehe can't help myself) and then had a delightful dinner with the lovin' fam...but better than ALL of that...I started the first day of the new year with the Lord. I must admit, many days have passed me by where my Bible sat on my coffee table...and each time I whisked by it , it was as if the Lord was whispering to me ..drawing me towards it...but so many days out of this past 2013 year, I let all the lesser things of life, the business of each day, the hustle and bustle of housework and the other mundaine things of the busy life take me captive...and although I know that I certainly did grow in the Lord this year thanks to His grace, His beautiful mercy and His crazy steadfast abounding love... I still feel deep in my spirit that I missed out on so much more, I missed out on a deeper level of relationship with my Jesus...all because I spent too much of my time allowing the world to stinkin suck me in to all it's traps..
Seriously, this world has so much eye candy for us Christians, it's insane...my life should look so different than the world's, the things I choose to spend my time doing, the things I choose to spend my money on...what I focus on..I mean, my word...If I had to guess, I could just about bet that each day that passed me be this year, I spent AT LEAST 2 to 3 hours on social media..AT LEAST. Some days were probably more than that...How many hours each day did I spend in the word? Or maybe even in prayer? And while I'm on the subject of social media...me working in girl's ministry and , well, being a girl myself...I have seemed to have formed an opinion on the many social media's out there..Let's see...we got our beloved Instagram, the Precious site of Pinterest, the Tempting Twitter, and several others we all know, love, worship, etc. (snapchat, vine, facebook...yada yada).
I see 2 sides to to social media...and unfortunately , in my opinion..most of these that I have listed are used more for destruction than for good..even from us Christians.. now DONT GET ME WRONG, I use these social avenues and am trying to stay as far away from the legalistic said as possible.. I feel like the Lord has been slowly but surely speaking to me about the social medias I use and how most of the time, they ruin me instead of lift me up...
----> What do we as girls do on social media? Well, let's look at instagram for example...Whats the purpose in it? I love instagram and a lot of times use it to post announcements for church and the girls, or just encouragement in general..but I also love posting pictures of the people in my family that I love, the things I choose to do on the weekends, me in a new outfit, updates to our house, etc....And as I scroll through my feed, everyone else that I follow (99% of them being girls), they are all posting the same things...a lot of times, I will scroll through to see a picture of girls in bikinis, on the beach, workin it..and as to them it seems harmless, the enemy knows my weakness because he is evil and conniving, and he uses those pictures to ruin me...He slowly sneaks in and begins to tell me that I will never look as good as her or her.. or maybe I scroll through a pic of a bunch of girls all having a fun get together, and as I lift my head up from my phone, I see no one around me at the time..and begin to compare my life to theirs...It brings depression, it brings dissatisfaction in who I am in Christ, it brings an ugly comparing monster into your life that sucks you in to thinking if she has a cute outfit on, you need to post a pic of YOU in an even cuter outfit..or if they are out having a good time and your at home, your life is suddenly boring and not good enough...and your become jealous...envious..bitter and all things unrighteous...you think Im wrong? Ive been a girl my whole life (ummm...yeah) and I'd put money on this. don't tell me you have never felt jealous, envious, bitter or compared your life to someone elses through a simply picture posted on insta...cause I have ..and Im tired of allowing the enemy to ruin me through it...instagram is not bad..but let's face it, sometimes it's just not that good..
---> what about Pinterest? I spend SO much time on pinterest...what do I do? I spend countless hours pinning things to my "corkboard" that I , if searching way deep down, what probably be honest and tell you I have no intentions of cooking that, fixing this, crafting, the list goes on...sometimes I think that pinterest is an EASY way to get Christians to become dissatisfied with their life within 10 seconds..all you have to do is look at all of the awesome things that your house doesn't have, the awesome clothes that are NOT in your closet, and the perfect fitness bods that (I don't know about you but..) I definantly do not see when I look in my mirror at home. I just don't see it. I blink over and over again thinking that my fairy godmother will magically turn my cellulite filled legs into lean, mean fighting machines..but ..it just never happens! Boo you fairy godmother!!
...Im tired of being kicked around by the enemy through social media sites like intagram and pinterest even..it all seems a little silly just thinking about it..but I think that might be a little of how the enemy works..he takes something as harmless as posting a picture or pinning your dream home and turns it into a monster that's only desire is to steal, kill and destroy you and the confidence that is yours through the Authority of your Jesus...a woman is a pure and beautiful sight in the Lords eyes...He has given women confidence, given us boldness, given us purity and a sweet spirit, a gentle spirit that the world sees as weak and pathetic...but to the Lord, it is pure treasure..gold unspeakable..and by golly, this new year..2014...I will not, I cannot, I VOW NOT to let the enemy ruin who I know I am in Christ any longer.... goodbye ugly, hello Jesus... anyone with me tonight?
Anyone wanna take a stand and choose to stop allowing the issues of social media in us women to be ignored BY us women? I mean, for the love..it is affecting us. it is affecting me. in my walk. and that just cannot happen. It is affecting the way I view myself..its affecting my satisfaction in Christ alone...when you start reach ing for the things the world has to offer...even good things..before reaching for Christ..something is terribly wrong and you better get it right.
I am convicted.
And conviction, my friends, is a Christians best friend.
Conviction is what keeps you from falling...conviction is what drives you to pursue holiness..to reach for righteousness...Conviction is how we are able to stand up, dust off the dirt left from our last fall..and turn around ready to never go back to sin...Thank you Jesus for Conviction..
Kicking out the ugly this new year...ready to seek the Lord more, search for Him like never before, focus my eyes on Him and his beauty..and reject the enemy's lies..who's with me? ;)
Peace out 2013,
Ashleigh
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