A Special Invitation
Do you have a cup of coffee? Or a glass of iced tea? Or a can of La Croix?
You are going to need it! You are going to need something to refresh you after reading this blog!
We are going to have a heart to heart today … a coaching session … a tear-inducing, life-changing, gut-wrenching, soul-searching talk.
You know me by now … I will start positive and take you to the hard stuff. But don’t quit reading before we get to the hard stuff.
It’s the hard stuff that makes life worthwhile.
It’s the hard stuff that brings out the gold within us.
It’s the hard stuff that turns the wrong stuff into the right stuff.
Let’s do it!
What if …
What if you had the opportunity every single day of your life from this day forward to walk into the living room of nearly every person you have ever met in your entire life?
High school friends … long lost cousins … teachers … former neighbors … college besties … employers … and the girl who does your nails?
What is the one thing that you would want to say to them every day?
What if …
What if the invitation was then extended to all of their friends as well?
Not only were you invited into all of their homes but what if they had invited everyone with whom they had ever crossed paths as well to meet you in their home and to talk together?
What is the lasting impression that you would want to leave with each one?
What if ….
Do you know where I am going with this? Hold on …
(Take a sip of your La Croix … you are going to need it for what is coming next!!)
What if …
What if EVERYONE in the room had the chance to speak?
Imagine it … everyone in attendance at this daily gathering was invited to talk about anything at all.
You could talk about the weather … or your dog’s pooping schedule … or how your kids don’t respect you anymore … or about how much you hate the president … or about how much you love the president … or about how much you despise the songs that people are singing at church.
You can whine about your husband’s boss … complain about how no one ever helps you … or cry over spilled milk.
What if?!!
And in addition to an uninterrupted time of speaking about whatever was on your mind … you could actually have time for a show and tell with this captive audience!
(Breathe in and breathe out … you are going to survive!)
You could show them pictures of what is going on in your life! How fun would that be?!
You could show your C-section scar … your kid throwing a temper tantrum in Target … your neighbor’s overgrown yard … a picture of a congressperson making a fool of themselves … your car after someone hit it in a parking lot.
(Believe me … I have seen all of those pictures and more!)
Take another sip of your coffee … or your tea … we are getting there … the point is coming.
You Are Cordially Invited
By
Social Media
To Share your Life With Others
You Are Encouraged
By Your Creator
To Make It Meaningful
Now we are going to take the hard stuff … and turn it into the good stuff.
Let’s do it!
First of all – Social Media is not a personal journal.
Much of what is written on Facebook should be reserved for personal conversations and for private journal entries. Use some prudence in what you share and the manner in which you share it.
“Prudence” is an old-fashioned word with a powerful punch!
Prudence: caution with regard to personal matters; discretion.
Keep private matters private. There are still some issues in life that should make a person blush.
Secondly – Social Media should never be a bully pulpit.
Just because you have been given a voice on social media – don’t abuse people with it.
I think that we falsely believe that social media has suddenly become a place of personal importance and prominence.
You aren’t going to change anyone’s political opinion by what you post on Facebook … it ain’t happenin’!
I have political opinions and preferences … but I will reserve them for personal conversations and a meaningful, rather than emotional, exchange.
“If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.” – I Corinthians 13:13
Please, please, please – don’t attack people for their politics on social media. It’s the noisy gong and clanging cymbal principal.
Thirdly – think before you type. Perhaps it would be prudent (there is our new favorite word again) to ask yourself these questions before you post anything, visual or verbal, on social media.
Is it kind?
Is it encouraging?
Would this post hurt someone whom I love? Would this post hurt someone in my circle of friends?
Is it 100% truth or just my perception of the truth?
Does it represent how I would like to be remembered?
Does it draw the listener or the reader closer to the Lord?
Does it compel anyone to want to know Jesus?
Does this post help someone live a better life?
Do these words or does this picture bring joy to the people who come across it?
Does this post communicate the heart of who I am as a person?
And if you can answer those important questions with honesty and with integrity – then feel free to share with the world the wonderful life you have been given!
“But encourage one another day after day while it is still called today!” – Hebrews 3:13
O.K … we’re done!! That wasn’t too painful, was it?
Thanks for listening to my heart this week. As you know by now, my heart is truly not a perfect heart but it is a heart that is filled to overflowing with gratitude for the life I have been given and for the people who walk with me. And, it continues to be a heart that is relentlessly chasing after God and all that He is!