Now before I share why I have been missing this past month, I want to say this: I DO love social media. I think it is a great avenue to share Christ’s love and can be used for the greater good of society (if used wisely).
This post is in no way an attempt to make any person feel guilty for using social media. Use away myfriend, but please read on because you might just relate to my struggle.
Now let me share why I have stepped away temporarily:
Reason #1: We’ve been traveling! Wahoo!
While I would love to be one of those people who shares their travels on their stories and in posts, I am weird and don’t like the world to know that we aren’t home. Yes, I know I could have continued posting as if I were home, but we decided to pretty much go unplugged while we were vacationing. It was fabulous!
In late March my husband and I took a couples trip (one of my goals this year) to an all-inclusive in Mexico. It was amazing! I highly recommend going to an all-inclusive with your spouse especially if you have little ones and haven’t gotten away in a while. Getting away with your spouse even for a weekend pours life into a marriage! And the all-inclusive is a must so you don’t have to handle money or worry about what you will eat or drink at all the entire time.
Then just a short time after we came home from Mexico, we tackled another one of our goals for this year and that was taking a family trip out of state! It was great! We headed down to Waco, TX to see the Magnolia/Fixer Upper tourist attraction and all that it entails. I will do a full post on all that soon and how to travel to the Silos as a family, but for now I will tell you that it was amazing!
Reason #2: I am a recovering perfectionist
Wait what?! Isn’t this blog called ‘Confessions of an Imperfect Housewife’?!
Yes, I know and this is my confession. In a lot of areas of my life (mainly homeschooling and housecleaning) the Lord has worked on my heart and helped me improve greatly. My kids are thankful that I have ‘chilled out’ a bit when it comes to our homeschool life because if I am being totally honest, nobody enjoys school when mom micromanages and fun-governs every detail just so that I can check ALL the boxes. Thank you Lord for working on my heart in that area (though I know I am still very much a work in progress)… it is no doubt saving my relationship with the precious kids you have blessed me with!
However, when it comes to blogging and social media, I have this nagging desire to do all or nothing. I have tried again and again to tell myself to do what I can in this season and let that be enough. But the problem is that if I can’t do it all (i.e. pretty pictures, meaningful posts, heartfelt videos, consistent newsletters, freebies, physical products, digital products, regular error free blog posts etc.) then I do nothing. Ugh! (Pray for me!)
A wise friend shared these words with me that she heard from another wise friend that I am sharing with YOU: We need less perfectionists in this world and more good enough-ists! Amen!
With that being said, I stepped away and am now slowly making my way back my goal is to be a good-enoughist. The perfectionist in me wants to go back full throttle, but the realist in me knows that ‘full-throttle’ isn’t a possibility in this season.
Reason #3: Because I felt like it…
Ever ask your kids, “Why did you do that?!” “Because I felt like it…”
Yep, that’s me. I love to encourage the world around me where I can, but other times I like to be an introvert and keep my family life to myself. As I am sure you know, life on Social Media and especially through the filter of blogging requires vulnerability. The truth of the matter is that people relate to personal experience and stories not to empty lessons and facts.
Why do I know this to be true? Because I wrote two posts recently regarding salvation and in the first post I basically wrote down facts and taught with very little personal background attached. I alluded to my story, but without any specifics. In the second post I led with my very raw and vulnerable story rather than facts about salvation.
Can you guess which post people responded to more?
If you guessed the second one you are so right! We relate to other people’s personal lives, we just do.
With that being said, being vulnerable can be exhausting (which is why I stepped back for a second), but it pays dividends if the goal is to share Christ’s love. His glory and strength shines so bright in our lives if we let it…. It reminds me of the parable of the talents. It is easier to hide our gifts & talents and doing nothing with them (like the wicked and lazy servant), but God wants to use them, share them and multiply them for His GLORY!
So am I coming back to social media?
The answer to that is likely yes. Like I mentioned before, it is such a beautiful avenue to share Christ’s and reach more ears.
Funny story, the other day I was praying about it. I was praying and asking God if He wanted me to be on social media at all anymore.
I secretly was hoping that God would respond to me something like, “Thou dost not need Instagram” or “Deleteth thou Facebook”.
Why was I hoping for that answer? Well, because it is a challenge for me and if God said no, then I had reason to abandon ship and feel relieved of that responsibility (I am wicked and lazy… case and point why I need Jesus!!)
God did answer, but not how I was expecting. Shortly after finishing up my prayer time, I hopped over to my 365 Day Bible Reading Plan (another goal I am working on in 2019) and found myself reading Psalm 147. As I came to verses 10-11 I knew this was God’s answer to my questio:
His delight is not in the strength of the horse,
nor His pleasure in the legs of a man,
but the Lord takes pleasure in those who fear Him,
in those who hope in His steadfast love.Psalm 147:10-11
It was one of those “Ah-ha, I hear you Lord!” moments! You see when I am on social media or even blogging I get so caught up in the number of followers and the number of email subscribers (aka the strength of my horse), but God is not concerned with that. He cares about my heart. Am I fearing the Lord? Am I putting my hope in His love and His love alone? Or am I putting my hope in the numbers?
So yes I will be back on Social Media soon, but I need to make sure my heart is in the right place. The rest will follow if God so sees it fit for it to happen. I must rest in that and trust in His timing, and hope in His love.
Have a wonderful day my dear friend!
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