By Kim W.We log onto Facebook and read other people's statuses, and we look through the numerous photographs from our friends and acquaintances... and what do we sometimes conclude?
Everyone is happier than us.
Everyone is more successful than us.
Everyone's husband is more thoughtful or helpful than ours.
Everyone gets to go on wonderful vacations.
Everyone else has children who are perfectly obedient and excel more than ours.
Everyone else has more friends.
Sadly, Facebook can be a miserable place.
It can be a good thing in our hearts, though. Why? Because it exposes something ugly in our hearts - which is hard at times - but we can deal openly with our sin when it comes glaring at us from the pages of Facebook. When we become aware of our jealousy, our grumbling spirit, and our discontentment, we can bring those sinful attitudes before the Lord and ask Him for forgiveness. We should then repent from those sins and move on toward godliness. Sometimes, Facebook should be avoided, and that may be a wise choice...but sometimes God can use this media source to help us become more disciplined in our attitudes toward others.
In regards to guarding our hearts, we must be aware that this goes both ways. We present ourselves in the best light possible. We lie, we exaggerate, and we present ourselves as WE want others to see us. We want others to believe that we are living a life worthy to be envied, and we desire, in a way, for others to applaud us for our perfect and wonderful lives. What is the result of this? A simple conclusion: we all end up trying to be something we are not, but at the same time believing that everyone else has a better life. We try to bring ourselves glory, which is in direct opposition to what God wants for our lives.
I read an anonymous quote that said, "If we only wanted to be happy, it would be easy, but what we really want is to be happier than other people."
What pride and selfishness! I am constantly having to guard my own heart from these kinds of thoughts and attitudes.
The next post will include the conclusion of this series. It is full of good news for all of us! I will discuss how and why we should bring glory to God while we are on Facebook, which should be our heart's desire.
