Have you ever had an experience where there is someone, or a number of people, in your life that you want to say things to, but you know that you can't? (Spoiler, I'm about to...)
This is how I feel when I am on Facebook. Silly things like people posting about a musical artist I don't like (If I see one more post about how "talented" Taylor Swift is, I may throw up...) to political status updates that you either disagree with and commenting on would start a fight, or that you agree with and commenting on would shockingly enough--start a fight. (By the way, I do my very best to NEVER comment or post my political viewpoints, though I am outspoken about them in person....) Then there are the posts that make me cringe, like posting statuses one day about how much you love your beau and the next day you hate their &^#*#&^#& guts. Or the 53432 posts of the girl in the mirror holding her Iphone making a pouty face. I have to bite my tongue, stop myself from making snarky comments, and many times, block them from my mini-feed.
Then there are the whoa-is-me, my-life-sucks, everyone-pity-me, cry for attention posts that get under my skin. Especially when posted over and over again by the same person, who when people comment encouraging things, blow them off and heap more pity onto themselves. This is where I usually get in trouble.
I consider myself a somewhat compassionate person. I definitely know people who have more compassion than I do, but especially when it comes to my teens at my youth group, I love them and want them to succeed. But I've been finding that it seems like I am hitting my head on a brick wall, and anyone that works in ministry knows this feeling, but you sit down with a teen, give them advice, and they come back in a month asking for the same advice. Um, didn't I just tell you how to deal with that situation? Okay, let's try again. Then two weeks later... Seriously? Again? Are you going to listen this time? Okay no problem, here's the advice again, let me write it down. Then a month later, they stop coming to you and you see them floundering in the same mistakes and you pull them aside, ask if you can help and boom. Head---meet brick wall.
Facebook seems to be a place where people don't think before they post, it's the self-center capital of the world, (Ha, says the girl posting a blog about her life...) and even though you are under your own profile, there is still a huge wall of anonymity, so many people (adults and teens included) feel like they can say and post whatever they want to post without any consequences.
I'm here to say: No, you cannot post whatever you want. No, you cannot say whatever you want. And Yes, I will comment on your Facebook status teenagers of mine if I think it's inappropriate or obnoxiously self-pitying.
Block me. De-Friend me. Go for it. But I am calling you all out, Fuel teens. I am calling you out to be a generation of better Facebookers. And I am guilty of this too, so I'm joining you in this challenge too. Let's be a group of people that uplift each other on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and on your blogs (Which by the way, I can and DO see and read. So yeah. Some of you should really reconsider what you post. And should consider deleting some websites.).
Facebook is a both a blessing and a curse. Without it, I wouldn't be able to keep in touch with some of my friends from high school and college and see their adorable babies, or talk to my brother in Kuwait, or geek out about Doctor Who with my fellow Whovians. But it's a curse because it starts so many fights, and causes so many issues of jealous and dissension where there shouldn't be any issues. Maybe some of you need to shut down Facebook for a while, rethink how and why you post. What's the purpose? Are you trying to get attention from people? Are you updating people on your life? More importantly, who is getting the glory on your Facebook page, you or God?
November has become the month of being thankful and recognizing the good things in your life and praising God for those things. Perhaps as followers of Christ, living under vows to Him, we need to live that way all the time.
