Social Media is a place to connect with people you know and don't know. A place to post photos, update your statuses, vent, and keep up with everyone and their dog.
It can also be a place of drama and negativity. For me personally, it is so easy to write the negative instead of sharing the positive. I have experienced this first hand.
As most of you know, I have been going through quite a bit of my own personal stuff. Last year I had a very tough pregnancy, hard labor, child birth and recovery. On top of all that I was diagnosed with postpartum depression and anxiety. Then in case that wasn't enough, my husband fell 12 ft off a ladder, broke his leg, and shattered his left knee. A very tough time for my family.
But before actually giving birth to Channing, getting diagnosed with postpartum, and Keith breaking his leg, I was already on an emotional roller coaster and I certainly expressed every feeling I had, good or bad, on Facebook. Not the best thing to do.
I absolutely have the right to feel the way I do, am even completely justified in those feelings, and certainty can write about my feelings where I want and when I want - like Facebook and Twitter, right? Not so fast...!
So one day, after complaining about everything I could think of and expressing my feelings to the world via Facebook, I felt convicted. I felt God tell me that I needed to apologize.
Wow, really God? Do I have to? I mean I only wrote how I felt?
"Yes, you do. You are a child of God and with that comes responsibility for your words and actions. You are called to be a light in the darkness. You need to be uplifting. There are power in your words."
I actually had someone delete me because my posts were depressing. I cried for two days afterward. But, I also believe God used that to show me that what I write has an effect on people. I want it to be the right effect, a positive one. To be able to share God's power and love. People certainly need those words more than they need to read about me having a bad day. Plus, on those days I feel like writing the negative but I choose a scripture instead - it uplifts me, too.
So I apologized to Facebook. I had many people say that I didn't have to and/or that they appreciated my honesty. I really felt like I had to do it. And truthfully, I felt so much better after I did.
This post is by no means to tell you that you shouldn't write what you're feeling. Just remember that many people see what you write and I don't know about you, but I want them to be encouraged not discouraged by the words of my posts.
Proverbs 18:21 (AMP)
"Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and they who indulge in it shall eat the fruit of it [for death or life]."
Ephesians 4:29 ESV
Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.
Proverbs 16:24 ESV
Gracious words are like a honeycomb, sweetness to the soul and health to the body.
Proverbs 12:18 ESV
There is one whose rash words are like sword thrusts, but the tongue of the wise brings healing.
Matthew 12:36 ESV
I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak,
Psalm 19:14 ESV
Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.
Proverbs 17:27 ESV
Whoever restrains his words has knowledge, and he who has a cool spirit is a man of understanding.
I know that I will always be tempted to post the negative things, but I hope that I am able to show God's love, pray for and minister to those in need. For that's the person I want to be.
~Vicki~
