No Social Media - One Week In

January 7th my husband and I set out to essentially “fast” from social media, tv, and video games for 30 whole days!! (I know, crazy)

We’re a little over one week in and it’s crazy how much our lives have changed already. Both in ways that were expected and unexpected.

Suddenly, without the distraction of facebook or pinterest or whatever, I have time to workout. (yay.) My husband and I have been sitting down at the table to eat dinner, instead of in front of the tv. We play with Levi more and read books and spend more time in the word instead of zoning out on our phones. Our house has stayed cleaner! Because when you’re free from distractions you suddenly have time to keep your house clean. Funny how that works.

Going into this challenge I was a little worried that I might get lonely. After all, when you live far from home, like we do, facebook is one of the few ways you can stay connected to friends and family back home. But strangely enough I didn’t really feel that lonely at all.

In some ways, I actually felt less lonely. Here’s where the unexpected part comes in. I realized a very harsh and bitter truth about myself: I look to social media for approval.

GASP!!!

This challenge has been at times, very easy and yet very hard. Staying away from my phone wasn’t nearly as hard as I thought it might be. The hard part was realizing that I wanted to post things sheerly for the approval of others. I wanted people to see me in a good light. I often post cute and funny pictures of my son, so that people will think I’m a good mom. (how that makes sense I’m truly not sure) I want people to think I’m funny and nice and that I’ve got it all together!

But if I’m honest with myself; I definitely don’t have it all together. I only ever post the good parts of my life. I don’t post pictures of a sink full of dirty dishes, or a picture of my messy house. I don’t post that I feel lonely or that since Levi’s been born we eat way more fast food than ever before. And whether I post the good parts of my life to convince others or myself that I’ve got it all together, I really don’t know.

But I wonder if I’m not the only one. I wonder if other people scroll through facebook feeling like everyone has it together except them. Ouch. That’s a tough pill to swallow. And it’s hard not to feel inadequate when see that super fit girl posting a post-workout selfie. Or the mom who seems to have mastered motherhood, making homemade meals, taking her perfect angels to the park everyday, all the while volunteering at the homeless shelter. Okay, I exaggerate, but still. How many of us post things that make it look like we have it all together when really, maybe we don’t?

And it’s not that I think we need to post every hardship or every depressing thought that comes into our heads on facebook. I simply wonder if we spent less time on facebook and more time truly connecting with people, if we’d be a little less lonely. Less depressed. Less of a need to put your best face forward and convince the world that you’re superwoman (or man).

Real, authentic people who care about one another. I wonder what would happen….

Politicians Are NOT Going To Save Us

Ugh. Politics. My least favorite topic in the whole world. So much passion on either side. So much… fighting.

I don’t know about you but anytime politics of any sort get brought up I dread the oncoming conversation. In fact, I’m dreading posting this at all because I know someone is not going to like what I have to say. And the thing is, it doesn’t even seem to matter whether I agree with them or not. There’s always arguing, disagreement, name-calling, hurt feelings… No. I’d like to stay as far away from that as possible.

However, this year it seems to be worse than usual. With the presidential election last year I’ve witnessed more political tension and strife than I ever have before. Every way you look someone is angry about something. And someone else is angry with them for being angry about whatever the first person was angry with!

Anger. Fear. Tension. Strife. Quarreling. Name-calling on Facebook. It’s all too much for me sometimes. So often I’ve wondered why we can’t just calm down and talk things out civilly, like adults. Because I’ve worked in a daycare. I know a temper tantrum when I see one. And these days it seems like there are an awful lot of toddlers trapped in adult bodies.

Now I don’t want to say all of this to make people mad. Heaven knows that is the last thing I want.

But a few weeks ago I came to a realization. I was scrolling through Facebook when I came across some political piece criticizing something or other. It was one of those people who is constantly posting political things. (It doesn’t really matter who but we all know that person) Normally I just scroll on. I tend to avoid controversial fighting on Facebook (and real life too if I’m being honest).

But for some reason I paused and read this particular little ad. It was something about the president being a nazi or some such. Now I don’t know if that’s true or not (and that’s not really the point) but it made me stop and think.

This person, for whatever reason, truly believed our president was acting like a nazi. It was in that moment that I realized I had a hope that this person did not have. The hope of Jesus.

For a moment I saw the world as they saw it. They believed the people in power did not have the people’s best interests at heart. They thought they were nazis, tyrants, the big dogs on top. Whatever you want to call them. And they were scared.

And I realized I would be scared too if I had to put my entire faith into a human being. Let alone a human being that I didn’t think was a good person.

And suddenly my heart broke.

All of these people, left to put their hope in no one but a human being. A faulty, broken human being. To be honest, I don’t know how they do it. I don’t know how someone could live without the hope that Jesus offers.

But I do know one thing.

“He changes times and seasons; he removes kings and sets up kings; he gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding…” Daniel 2:21

I don’t pretend to know why God does the things he does. I don’t always like the people he puts in power. I don’t always want to follow where he leads. But I do know this; Politicians are NOT going to save us. Human beings are NOT going to save us. The nicest, most honest person on the planet is still NOT going to save us.

Because people will always let us down. Even the people who care about us most will let us down. Because none of us are perfect and we’re all more than a little broken.

But I’m not afraid. This world can be a scary, dark, cruel place, but the light of Jesus will be my guide. Because in the end, he is the only one who can truly save us.

30 Days - No Social Media

 Yes. You read that correctly. Thirty days. No social media.

Why would I attempt such a strange and arduous task? Well. Here’s the thing. Have you ever thought about how much time you spend just scrolling through Facebook or Pinterest or Instagram?

Personally, I try not to. Largely because, well, I know I spend WAYYY too much time on there. I find myself getting on to just check one little thing, really quick, and suddenly, an hour has gone by just scrolling. And usually by the time I realize I’ve wasted a precious hour (or two or three) of my life and logout, I find that I forgot why I even got on there in the first place!

To my dismay, it has become a vicious cycle. It’s made worse by the fact that to certain extent we need our phones and laptops. We need to get a hold of people. We need them to be able to get a hold of us. We need to answer emails and texts and check assignments online. Our world has sadly made it nearly impossible to live without modern technology.

But what if, for thirty whole days, we said no. No to Facebook. No to Instagram. No to Pinterest. It sounds so dreadfully hard!

I don’t know about you but I wonder how our lives would change. Would we have more time and energy to do the things we actually wanted? More time to spend with our friends and our families? More time to spend reading God’s word?

For me, I know I tend to make excuses when it comes to having the time to do things. I don’t have time to workout. I don’t have time to read my bible. I don’t have time to do homework or laundry or dishes!

But if I’m brutally honest with myself, I do. But isn’t it so much easier to pull out our cell phones and just mindlessly scroll? We can spend hours watching videos about cats or food or fails. We can spend hours pinning and stalking people we used to know on Facebook. It’s just so easy.

But is it really life fulfilling? Uh oh.

The truth is, we have a lot more time than I think we even realize. I can (and often do) spend hours on Pinterest looking for the perfect workout, when I could really just.. Go work out. The sad fact is, I’m only just beginning to realize how much time I do waste. And if there’s one thing we can never get back, it’s the time we have on this earth.

The reason my time has suddenly become so very precious to me is because, well, I have a baby. He’s growing before my very eyes and before I know it he’ll be all grown up. I don’t want to miss that.

So for the next thirty days my husband and I are abstaining from social media. No Facebook. No Instagram. No Pinterest. (because my husband is the pinterest addict obviously…) We’ve also decided to include television and video games because those are other big time wasters for us. We will still be using our phones for texting and calling, but that’s pretty much it.

Along the way I plan to write and blog about our experience with this “Thirty Day Challenge”. For me, writing is life fulfilling so I don’t see that as wasted time. But I don’t want to just stop wasting time. I want to fill my life with the things, the people and the God I love. And I know I just can’t do that sitting in front of a screen.

So tomorrow, January 7th, is Day One for me. The last day will be February 5th. If you would like to join me that would be amazing and I'd love to hear all about it! If not, I completely understand. But it’s never too late to make a change