How are you doing? I mean really - how are you doing?
This has been such a weird, frustrating, strange year for me and I'm sure for others too.
I've had a hard time with social media because it sucks me in and I spend waaaaaaay too much time with it. It's an addiction, I know it is because I took a break from one form of social media over the past weekend and It. Was. Hard. Whenever I was bored I would pick up my phone and automatically touch the icon and then realized what I was doing and had to quickly close it up. I learned to stay busy with other activities and lo and behold my bathrooms were clean by the end of the day on Saturday!
So why did I take a break? Thanks for asking :)
I was getting stressed out and angry at all the posts from people telling everyone their opinions about what's happening right now. At first it was enough for me to just scroll by and ignore but after a while my brain registered what was being said and I just couldn't not see it anymore. I tried "snoozing" some people for a month and that is helpful---for a month.
It's just too much. Way too much. As one friend puts it: "it's so heavy" and she is right. It weighs on a person and affects more than just your own mood.
I am trying to figure out exactly what bothers me so that I can figure out how to deal with it. I may have it figured out, not sure, but here goes:
It could be the fact that people are so brave when they are typing on a keyboard/phone and they seem to feel that they can say whatever they want to who (whom?) ever they want. When they get negative feedback it's all about attacking...or blaming....or.....something....
We have a whole lot of "experts" out there who freely share what they think is fact without REALLY knowing for sure. But what they share is agreeable to them so that makes it ok.
I admit to reading more often the information that aligns with my beliefs and experiences and ignoring the rest. #humannature Learning to question what you don't agree with APPROPRIATELY is vital to changing how we communicate with each other.
But enough of that...
I wanted to share something that I read and realized today and you can take it or leave it. It struck me as timely and important which is why I wanted to share.
Since the beginning of this year I have been taking time in the morning to do three things. I read the Bible verse of the day on my app, I read a daily devotional from my Bible app and I spend at least a few minutes outside. On a good day I drink my coffee out on the front patio.
Today is day 3 of a 5 day reading plan or devotional if you want to call it that and it's called Whisper. The author is Mark Batterson and he discusses listening in order to hear God talk to you.
Today's reading basically talked about how people get more attention by being quiet - if you are in the middle of a loud group of people and you want their attention is it better to yell or "shh?" Try it sometime and let me know.
I will tell you that when I worked in a hospital nursery with crying babies I would whisper quietly in their ears, just loud enough to get their attention and it worked! Those little heads would turn to hear the source of the quiet voice and try to hear what I was saying.
Batterson says that this is how God works-as we get busier and things get louder we get distracted and we need to stop and listen for that quiet voice to calm us down. It's there for us but we have to listen for it .
So that's what I am going to do..I'm going to listen for the whisper and let it push away all the noise....
Whether you believe in God or something else I would encourage you to do the same.
Wishing you peace, health and happiness....