Scrolling, Scrolling, Scrolling

We have begun a new study in our Sunday School class, called Thriving in Babylon. It is basically teaching us about being a Christian in the modern world that we live in. This world is full of ideas and things going on that do not align with Christian living. But in all actuality, the world now isn’t as different as we think, than the world the people lived in during Biblical times.

At the end of our current lesson, we were issued a challenge to give up one aspect of social media for a week and to reflect on not being a part of it. We had discussed in the lesson how social media can have a lot of negative effects on our thinking. So I did it because after all it was a challenge. You would be surprised how difficult it was for me to just log out. I was hit with the FOMO (fear of missing out, just in case you are like me and have to google all these acronyms). I went back and forth as to whether or not I really wanted to partake of this challenge, then I remembered you only get out of it what you put into it, so if I really wanted to learn something I had to go all in. So FB, IG, & Snapchat we’re logged out of for the week. I kept blogging, but that was it.

On Sunday evening, I couldn’t wait to log back in to see what I had missed. There were some awesome things that made me smile as soon as I saw them. But after about five minutes of scrolling I had this different feeling, a feeling of disappointment in myself, but I wasn’t really sure where it was coming from, so I just kept scrolling. Another 5 minutes of scrolling that feeling kept nagging at me. I couldn’t figure out where it was coming from. I scrolled for a while longer and checked in on the other sites. Then, I went to bed.

When I woke up the next morning, I got back at scrolling again and that nagging feeling came back. I asked myself what is the deal? I’m not doing anything wrong, why do I feel dissatisfied with myself? I went throughout the day yesterday and it finally dawned on me why I was having this weird feeling.

At the beginning of the challenge I had prayed that God would show me something, teach me something during this time. So I started reflecting on what good things came about during this week. One of the number one things that I learned was how out of wack my priorities are/were.

What’s the first thing you do in the morning? If you are like me, it’s grab your phone and scroll through the sites to see what you’ve missed while you were sleeping. I can’t believe I slept for 8 hours and missed everything that was going on! I just have to know!

Yesterday I realized how non-beneficial it was to make that my #1 priority in the morning. Starting my day that way promoted myself, it put me first. It wasn’t until yesterday that I understood, my time can be used so much more effectively for my ultimate purpose. I’m trying to simplify, I’m trying to be humble, I’m trying to serve and social media gets in the way of that because it makes it about me; all the things I could have; all the things I should have; all the things I do have .

During my week off, I had free time that I didn’t have any plans for. Guess what I happened during that free time? I had time for all those tasks that I’m just “too busy “ to find the time for. I read my Bible everyday, I read devotionals every day, I wrote devotionals, I wrote blogs, I baked the muffins my daughter asked for (twice), I cleaned out my closet, I cleaned my house, I prayed a lot, I journaled, I played with my children, I read a book, I just sat in silence (while the kids were asleep of course). While doing all these things I realized how much more focused I was in my purpose. I wasn’t just trying to make it through the day, filling my time with meaningless scrolling and surfing. I found productive things to do that benefited my mind, but also benefited my soul.

Social media might not be your “busy", maybe it’s something else . Maybe it’s your job, maybe it’s your kid's extracurriculars, maybe it’s your hobbies, maybe it’s watching TV. Maybe it’s all of those things. Whatever it is, I challenge & encourage you to choose one of those things and take a break from it, cut back on it, step away for a short period of time and see how it changes you. Be open to the possibility that maybe just maybe you don't need it as much as you thought you did. Be open to the fact that when your prioritize, I mean really prioritize that you just might have time for all those things you always tell yourself you just can’t do because you’re “too busy”.

Maybe, just maybe you’ll realize like me what really matters most.

With love,

Tori