Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. Romans 12:2

I recently attempted to create a page for our blog, on a social media site. What a nightmare. It is an extremely difficult procedure and, in fact, I am still waiting for them to “approve and allow” it. While I was attempting to set up the page, I noticed that I had a large number of friend/follower requests and suggestions. But, believe it or not, I am not a social media person so those requests and suggestions are unfortunately still sitting there. I really do need to get better about this. But honestly, social media frightens me a little.

I know a number of people who post everything that you could possibly think of and didn’t want to know. lol.

Then there is the even larger group of people who are social media peeping toms. They look at the posts of all their friends/followers, then they go into the friend’s friend/follower list and look at all their posts and then go into their friend/follower lists and on and on and on. So even though they aren’t friends/followers of these people they gain access to their accounts by going through a common friend’s account. The motivation behind this type of behavior is typically to gain information for the gossip mill or if a particular friend has some less than inhibited friends/followers perhaps it is for impure reasons that we stalk.

I read that a recent study showed that people who do not use social media are 11% happier in their marriages. It has gotten so bad that couples have actually begun to create prenuptial agreements pertaining to acceptable online behaviors.

Those who are addicted to social media, tend to neglect their spouses by spending too much time looking at the lives of others, while their’s falls apart around them. Then their are those who are looking at social media for impure reasons and I assure you that this will have a negative effect on your marriage/relationship. So it is no wonder that social media increases divorce rates and happier marriagtes exist among those who do not participate in social media.

Then their are The Measuring Stick people. These people are not only addicted to social media, but they compare every aspect of their lives to the lives of those that they friend/follow and or stalk. Do they have a bigger house, smarter kids, better looking or more successful spouse, better job? Then enters discontentment. We compare what we have (or potentially don’t have in this case) and suddenly we are unhappy with our children and pushing them to excel, unhappy with our spouse and attempting to change them, unhappy with our home and bitter toward our spouse because we don’t have better or unhappy with our success so we work more and neglect our family.

Instead of spending hours on social media and using it as The Measuring Stick for our lives, how about we spend just half as much time reading God’s word and measuring ourselves by what He says about us? Because His word says “The Lord appeared to us in the past, saying: ‘I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with unfailing kindness’ ” – Jeremiah 31:3; “See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!” – 1 John 3:1a ; “The Lord your God is with you, the Mighty Warrior who saves. He will take great delight in you; in his love he will no longer rebuke you, but will rejoice over you with singing” – Zephaniah 3:17. And, this is just the tip of the iceberg. His word is full of uplifting, affirming, comforting and inspiring love letters to us.

And, when we are measuring our lives and our home and our achievements, go to God’s word for that too. You will see that the grandest home you have ever seen, here on earth, pales in comparison to the glory that awaits us in Heaven.

So, what are we going to use as The Measuring Stick of our lives…the lives and successes of others or what God says about us and promises us in His word?

I pray that today you would immerse yourself in God’s word, instead of social media, and that He would remind you how precious you are to Him and how incredible His eternal plans are for you. I also pray that the vivid realization of His love and promises would cause you to honor and glorify Him mightily and to share Him with anyone who will listen.

If you do not know our Precious Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior and if you feel that, based on The Measuring Stick of social media and the world, you just don’t measure up. I pray that you would go to our Life Preserver page and pray the prayer that is outlined there. Because God thought you were so cherished and adored that He gave His one and only Son, Jesus Christ, to pay the penalty for your sins, so that you/we would be able to spend eternity with Him. Once you have prayed that prayer, please reach out to me at admin@Forgiven-N-Loved.com and let me know, so that I can pray for you and help you grown in your relationship with and knowledge of our Precious Savior.

Luv Ya!