Fasting check in

I thought I would do a quick check in with you about how my social media fast is going. I am only doing this to encourage you in your own disciplines and to hold myself accountable. Ironically, we had some power outages last night and while I have been waiting to get my things to pull up and the computer running, I may have lost my religion.

Just kidding.

But I probably will need to repent after this.

Here we go with some check in points on the fast:

While I have not been overly tempted to check my feed since I moved it to the back page of my phone, I have found that there are times I miss it. When I am having time to fill waiting in the car or when it was slow at work on Friday, I “missed” connecting with the outside world through Facebook and Social Media.

This prompted me to pull up some prayers and Scripture I have saved in the Reminder section of my phone or simply to sit and ponder something from my devotional time or a sermon I heard recently. To think more deeply. And this is good. A good way to remove something and replace it with something better.

Another time I have missed it is when we are doing something and I would like to “share the moment”. At these times, I have prayerfully considered who would be the real life person I would like to share a photo or thought with and I have texted it individually.

Along that line, there are a few people I connect with regularly through messages on Facebook or Instagram. I have missed that part of our relationship. One young mom and I like to send each other funny memes on Instagram. I saw a hilarious quote on a makeup bag while shopping last Wednesday.

I googled it and found it on the web, took a screen shot and texted her. She laughed and responded that she too is on the social media fast. I feel less alone out there in non-connection world now.

I received an email that some precious young missionary friends of ours went through a harrowing near-miss of being imprisoned and put in a deportation camp. They are safe now. The only way I can connect with them is messaging on Facebook. This is also the only way I can connect with the young man’s parents, who are old friends.

I broke my fast to reach out to both and just share our love and gratitude that they are safe and yet broken hearted for having to have left their ministry and friends so quickly. I knew that to not utilize the means I had to offer love and comfort in this case bordered on legalism. Like Jesus encouraging the disciples to eat grain as they passed through the fields on the Sabbath, we need to use our disciplines wisely.

Russ and I have had some comic moments ordering off a menu as we honor his fast. It is good to share this season with him. We are supporting each other and it is making us more aware of how often we do not deny ourselves anything. Removing some things we just normally add to our life that are not bad, but are not essential has been a great reminder of focusing on what is good AND essential <3

I would love to share this on Facebook, but I can’t so am sharing here. My friend and fellow blogger, Shelly Templin has written a great post on marriage and you can read it here https://www.shellydtemplin.com/encouragement/its-a-wonder/

Love and hugs to all <3

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