For quite some time, I have been truly convicted by an issue: Social Media. It can be so much fun and used for so much good, but it can also be incredibly harmful to ourselves and other people. It can completely absorb us and hold our attention for longer than most things. If something is posted, it can spread like wildfire and never be taken back. It is an addiction; we constantly check for notifications, as if this were to measure how much we are cared for. Some people spend hours, if not days, perfecting the carefully thought out Instagram post, so that they can sit and watch the likes pour in. Social media is some people’s only source of news. A complete lie can be told and the whole world might take it as fact within less than an hour.
Whether we use it for good or for evil, it can be a dangerous weapon.
If you have a lot of followers and likes and love posting artistic photos, this is not a blog post to degrade you or shame you. I just want to encourage everyone, no matter how many people see, to produce positivity and live for the Big Man Upstairs instead of the billions of little people in the world.
For some people, especially girls, social media can either feed or stomp out any kind of self esteem they thought they had. The amount of attention they receive on a picture can determine their self worth for the period of time in between the next thing they post, clinging to the hope that they’ll gain more likes, followers, comments, and finally be noticed.
Well I’m here to tell you that it’s all a lie.
You are beautiful if you get two likes and you are beautiful if you get two thousand likes. Want to know why? Because as cheesy as it sounds, beauty isn’t defined by your outward appearance; It’s defined by the content of your heart.
I recently read a quote that says, “If the words you spoke were written on your skin, would you still be beautiful?”
Come Judgement Day, Jesus isn’t going to pull up our Twitter page and see how many accumulative likes and retweets we got. He will look to our hearts and our souls. He will look to see whether we placed our faith in Him or just in things of this world.
For years, I have wrestled with the attempt to make my newsfeed a more positive place to scroll through. I follow lots of bible verse accounts and other encouraging things, assuming that I will take these messages in more than any negative ones. But we all know that’s not how it works.
It requires a certain condition of our hearts to view and successfully filter the things that we see on the internet. We need to know our worth, so that a number doesn’t define it. ATTENTION EVERYONE: The number of likes on a picture, views on a video, or comments on a post do NOT define you. Someone else defined your worth for you a long time ago and his name is Jesus. He took away anything bad you have ever done, are doing, or will do. He took all sin upon his shoulders and buried it at the cross. He loves you so much that he was beaten and died for you. He tells us that he saw the state of our hearts and all of our sin and he took it away because he wants to love us for the rest of eternity.
That is who we should look to for love, not our followers.
Proverbs 31:30 says:
“Charm is deceptive, and beauty does not last; but a woman who fears the Lord will be greatly praised.”
Even though this verse is specifically aimed at women, it applies to everyone. The bible repeatedly tells us that the things of this earth will fade. We can’t store our treasures here on earth because they don’t last; we need to store our treasures in heaven with the Lord.
“Store your treasures in heaven where moths and rust cannot destroy, and thieves do not break in and steal. Wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be.”
Matthew 6:20-21
Buying a product from the latest line of Mac lipstick might gain you earthly appreciation, but that only lasts for the blink of an eye in comparison to the rest of our eternity.
I know it’s easy to say that you’ll stop caring about what other people think and post, but it’s a hard task to actually accomplish. It has taken me years and years of consciously striving toward a point of uncaring to finally be able to rest in knowing who I am and Whose I am and I’m still not fully there sometimes.
It would go against our human nature to fully disregard every negative comment that comes our way, but it’s a goal that we can always keep reaching toward.
I can’t wait to come Home to our Father and be 100% satisfied in His love alone. There are a few things we can do now that will help us filter the messages of this world:
- Taking a social Media Fast
- Try deleting your social media apps for a certain period of time. Every time you look to your phone to check your notifications, pray. It will fill the void of wanting to be noticed by noticing God and remembering that he always notices you. Try fasting as long as it takes for you to gain your independence from the interweb. (Also, don’t try doing this while you are on a trip or other fun adventure because I guarantee you will break the fast.)
- Follow accounts that post positive content
- I know I just said that this doesn’t fix the problem, but sometimes it definitely helps. If you scroll past someone’s photo that you think is just way prettier than you, then you see a bible verse reminding you that your heart defines you more than your hair, that can only help you.
- Unfollow negativity
- This one can sometimes be tough to do if the negativity is coming from a relative or friend that you simply have to stay connected with. If you can’t unfollow them, go onto their page and unsubscribe from their feed. That way, you are still friends and you can still go on their page and see the important things, but they aren’t clogging your newsfeed with negative messages and political nonsense.
- Post things for yourself, not for others
- I don’t think there is anything wrong with editing photos and trying to be super artsy. The real issue comes in when you are planning your posts based off of how many likes you want to receive. That is a good indicator that your heart is not in the right place and you are living for other people’s approval.
- Fill your friends’ newsfeeds with positivity
- Start the trend of posting positive things. Post a “no-makeup” selfie and remind others that your beauty should not be taken at face value–literally! Share a bible verse or quote that encouraged you that day. Send a funny video to someone who has had a hard week. Even commenting on someone’s post might make their day.
The internet could crash and be gone forever; would you have as many friends in the real world as you do online? Would you be just as confident in yourself without any likes on your selfie? Always remember, you are more than a fancy profile and you are worth more than pushing a heart shaped button.
-Rachel
His Joy Awaits Me 