Hey!  Social Media…  Does it tell the truth?  Sometimes perhaps.

You know what I mean.  You have done it, haven’t you? It’s not that you want to flat out lie, but sometimes the things you put out there, into the world, only reflect a little bit of your journey.  Not because one snap can’t contain your life, but because you don’t want the world to see everything.

Why do we do that?  What is it about us that wants the world to see the little bits of our lives that seem to be well put together?  But we do it.

Somehow our identities have a hard struggle with Social Media.  We tend to show the polished part of our lives.

Even those celebrities that choose to not be photoshopped, still control what people see.  There might not be makeup on, and no computer enhancements, but those pictures are staged.  They reflect the moment of confidence, not the journey of fear leading up to the shot.

Somehow, we have let social media tell us what the world is like, but it’s still only a produced version of reality.

So let me ask…Does social media help you love yourself, or make you long to be like someone else?

Great question, isn’t it.  I must admit, I have failed many times in the “longing to be like someone else” category.  Even as I write this blog, in the back of my mind, I’m comparing myself to others who have written before me.

I’m sick of it.  But it feels like it’s a reality for the job I’m trying to do.  So how do we cope with it.  How do we learn to love ourselves instead of simply lusting after the 
“real” lives that we see produced on social media?

Well, here are 3 steps you can take, to help protect you from how social media tries to trick you into thinking you are not good enough, just as you are.

3 Steps to Love Yourself, and Make Social Media Submit to Your Identity.

1 – Recognize that the “real” stories are produced.

I mentioned it above, but you must actually do it.  The things we see on social media are produced to make those who see it, act a certain way.  We put a selfie out so that people see the part of our day that we have chosen to share.  They don’t see the whole day.  This isn’t evil, it’s just reality.  Remember that the guy or girl with the great hair took the shot, right when it was working well, not when they had a few flakes.

2 – Ask, Who Do I Follow?

You have got to ask yourself who you are following.  Are you following those who only make you long to be someone you are not?  You may need to stop watching them. Let me throw in an ugly word for a second to make this point stick.  When you long to live like someone else’s life instead of the one that God created for you specifically, that’s actually LUST.

Lust is when you want something that God doesn’t want you to have.  Don’t lust after someones wife, husband, girlfriend, boyfriend, haircut, new guitar.  Or here is the big one.  Don’t lust after someone else’s church.  That’s right.  When you long for your church to be more like someone else’s, you lust.  Instead of doing that, invest your heart into your broken church and let Jesus Himself bring new life to your church.

3 – Post more about Jesus, then yourself.

I’m not kidding here.  This doesn’t mean that you get Jesus to take a selfie with you. 🙂  Or perhaps it does.  What I mean here, is that when you spend more time with Him, He starts to show up in your life.  He will impact the things that go on social media, and He is it the ultimate content filter for what you see too.  When you make your day about Him, He will set your newsfeed.

Social Media isn’t bad.  But here is the reality that I’m learning.  It’s a forever statement about you.  What do you want it to say?  The truth, or that you want to be like someone else?

Take Away.

Chose who you watch.

Question.

How will you make different choices about who you watch?