Thankfulness

 A few weeks ago, I deleted my Facebook account. Again. 

You guys, I have such a love/hate relationship with social media! I know a lot of you do, too. I won't go into all the details of why I just can't do it anymore.

But I will say, I do not miss it. 

I do miss conversing with people I wouldn't normally connect with but here's what goes through my mind...

I try to imagine my great-grandmother and how she spent her days. I have a hard time imagining her sitting on her sofa scrolling through images and posts from hundreds of people she didn't REALLY know. Can you?! 

These grandma's got stuff DONE. They had to! There were not so many modern conveniences as we have now. But just because we have these time-saving luxuries does that mean we spend this "extra" time in a slothful way? I am convinced this does not honor God in my life. Maybe a little leisure scrolling here and there, of course. But as we all know that can easily turn into hours if you track it. It's embarrassing, especially when your husband has no clean socks and you haven't made a plan for dinner. But you know what Suzie Q from high school thinks about this new hot topic or what Joe Schmoe did last weekend. Yikes.

I'm sure there were still distractions but they weren't constantly in the palm of her hand. I am SO tired of being distracted and behind in important tasks! And wondering what people think of me. And if they approve of my walk with my friend or what I had for dinner or the family vacation we just went on. 

One thing I have noticed is that I feel so much more thankful. 

Last night, I found myself stumbling around in the middle of the night looking for my son's insulin pump device as his alarm was going off, and I was thanking Jesus under my breath. I was thanking him for the pump. That I didn't have to wake him up to give him an injection. As I crawled back into bed next to my sweet husband, I thanked God for him. For warmth. For a safe home. 

As my kids and I took a walk on our beautiful road the other day, I thanked God for my family and nature. For my role as a mother. For our healthy bodies. For food in the cupboards and insulin in the refrigerator. 

The reason this is all standing out to me is that when I was using social media daily, I was posting about it for everyone else to see without actually thanking God for these things. I might SAY that I was thankful but I didn't take that little intimate moment between me and my Creator and the sustainer of all things to simply say, "thank you". It has been warming to my heart, having this dialogue between the Lord and myself. It's drawing my heart closer to Jesus and to gratitude. And all of this stemming from taking social media off my phone and plugging more into my life. The stuff that's right in front of me.

“Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of heavenly lights” James 1:17

Love,  Andree