family pic

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Thursday, March 20, 2014

Should you vindicate yourself on Facebook?


Facebook can be a great tool to minister to others. It allows you to stay connected with friends, share encouraging articles or blogs, and updates in your life. But if used with ulterior motives it can also tear you and fellow Facebook friends down.

The other day a situation left me feeling misunderstood and hurt. I wanted to stand on a mountain top and explain myself to everyone, but I felt the Lord asking me to trust Him to work it all out. Then I got on Facebook. Let me tell you, it can be soooo easy to attempt to vindicate yourself on Facebook. Every time I would ponder an update the Holy Spirit would ever so subtly tell me "NO… GET AWAY FROM THE COMPUTER." After some contemplation I had to ask myself "Do I really trust the Lord to take care of me, or do I think He need's my help in doing so?" Finally I backed away from the computer and handed the situation over to God.

So how do you know if you are using Facebook to vindicate yourself? After some pondering I've decided there are three different category "Facebook vindicators" fall into:

1) The vague status updater

Ok, we all know of people who write a status clearly directed towards someone else. You especially see this after break ups right?? Something like,

"I shouldn't have known you were going to break my heart again…"

then

"Sally has updated her relationship status to single"

We are all like, Sally, for the love, just send the ex a message and tell him in person. Then a slew of people tell her she's better off and we're like "DON'T ENCOURAGE IT!"

2) The Bible Verse Jabber

Then you have the person who is a bit more subtle with their Facebook jabs. They pick a Bible verse that could jab their self offender. Someone gossips about them and then they post a verse about gossiping. Someone doesn't include them in their outing then they post a verse about loving your neighbor.

3) The last person is the blog/article jabber.

This person isn't technically writing something directed towards somebody else. They just read an article that in someway makes them feel vindicated and then simply hit that little blue 5 lettered word

share

They hope this will bring conviction in their offender, relating the article to the pain they've been caused.

I write this all with conviction because I've fallen in at least one of those categories at different times in my life. ouch. We can justify pretty much anything we put on Facebook, but we much ask ourselves

Why am I posting this?

Is it because you want to feel vindicated? Is it because you want other's to validate you?

I just wander how different Facebook would look like if we all evaluated our motives before posting and sharing what we write.