Lent

Lent begins today. For the last few years I've been observing it as a time to give up something. One year it was pop, one year it was fast food, last year it was all social media.

This year I'm again doing the fasting from social media and all things 'extra', like the games on my phone, blogging, and obviously facebook, twitter and instagram. Why all these things? Because they all take my time away from things that I should really be focusing on.

Since social media hit the scene back in the mid-2000's and everyone got smart phones thereafter, I feel like we've lost our focus. It's so easy to spend an evening at home watching TV and playing on facebook and reading blogs about other peoples lives instead of actually having relationships with people and learning about their lives through face to face interaction.

I'm not dissing social media or blogging at all. I've actually met some of my dearest friends through these mediums. Brittany and I met three years ago through a Kelly's Korner link up, which resulted in us then meeting lots of other bloggers from Columbus at a 'meet up' and I get together and do fun dinners and things with them all the time. So blogging has been a real blessing in my life and I'm so thankful for the wonderful friends I've met through it and the encouragement I've gotten from others that I don't know and will probably never, ever meet.

But back to social media being a time sucker upper. I have been late to work mutliple times because I lay in bed of a morning and scroll through pinterest, twitter, instagram, facebook, email, etc. all before getting out of bed in the morning. Then I go through them a second time just in case anything has been added as everyone was waking up and getting on social media as well. And I can't even count the number of evenings I just sat at home and played online instead of doing something productive.

But it's time to get my life back on track. Lent is a time when many Christians prepare for Easter by observing a period of fasting, repentance, moderation and spiritual discipline. I've done that before and I'm doing it again. This year it's a little more meaningful, as the true purpose behind Lent is to set aside time for reflection on Jesus Christ - his suffering and his sacrifice, his life, death, burial and resurrection.

Last year while I was on my social media break, I started attending a bible study with a friend. I loved it. Prior to that, I had gone to church for holidays, but never on a regular basis. During Lent I really started going and understanding the bible. It all made sense and I really felt a complete change in myself - with confidence, less anxiety, ease that things were going to work out how God has planned and that I can just trust him.

Attending church every Sunday continued until summer came and I got busy, and to be honest, lazy. I'm still going to bible study on Monday evenings, but I can tell a complete difference of how I'm focusing now and how I was focused last year. I'm not focused at all, basically. I miss class or show up late. Sometimes I don't have my lesson completed. My mind is somewhere else and not there. So it's time to cut back and focus. Get rid of the materialistic things (even though you can't actually hold social media) and get back in touch with what really matters - my friends, my family, my faith.

So, I encourage everyone else to take a little break from something that is absorbing your time and focus on the important things in your life. :)