Someone asked me recently, “Why do you post your church notes and so much personal stuff now on social media?”
It’s an interesting story really.
I use social media as a way to document our family’s life. It’s so much easier than the scrapbooking days of my youth. Once a year, I print all of my posts into a book for my daughter to look back on one day when she’s grown. It’s part “yearbook” and part “advice for when you’re a mom”.
When we started going back to church, I often found one strong takeaway from each message Pastor Andy shared. I decided if I put my notes from his sermon onto my social media page, they’d print in the book for my daughter to read down the road.
But then I noticed something.
One person.
Each time I posted something, one person would either comment, private message, call, or send me a TXT that told me something similar to, “Thanks for sharing that. I needed it today.”
That one person was never the same person, and rarely, if ever, was it more than one person.
I figured God was using my ability to write to reach one person at a time, and that inspired me to post anytime I felt a moment where something from the scripture impacted my life.
Like anything you study, scripture can change you, if you let it. I often look strong and happy on the outside, but like most of the world, I struggle with a lot of things on the inside. Unlike the self-help books, conferences, and other tools I have studied throughout my life, scripture is where I have found the most comfort, peace, and growth.
I believe God is real, and I believe in the power of the Holy Spirit. But the thing I believe the most in is the power of improving this world by studying how to become Christlike. The world would be amazing if we were all true mirrors of Him.
At the end of every day now, I reflect on the areas where I wasn’t a reflection of Him. I pray for help the next day. I pray God will turnaround broken relationships. I pray God will help me get rid of pride. I pray for patience and the ability to forgive. I pray for the hate in my heart to be overshadowed with the ability to only see the good in others. I pray for the tears I hold onto from the pain of my past to be replaced by the recognition of the growth the pain provided so I could help others. I pray for those I have caused pain to and whose hearts I have hurt, that they will be able to find the same peace and forgiveness through Christ.
So as I struggle and grow, I will continue to share my stories. As I hear great discussions that inspire and touch my heart, I’ll share them, too.
As I shared all of the above with the person who asked me the original question, their response was,
“That seems like a lot of work to touch just one person.”
“I’m pretty sure it touches a lot more than just that one person. For each person who reads something comes in contact with a lot of other people, and even if it changed an attitude for just a moment in time or planted a seed to help them grow over time, that one person matters most in the moment,” I said. “Plus, I will never know how many people it touched who never said a thing.”