Stop With The PERFECT Instagram Posts Already! (MINISODE)

Ever feel like you're the only one struggling while it seems like everyone else has it together? You're not alone in that feeling, and breaking through that isolation is exactly what this episode addresses.

Listen to Jake Thurston's Episode

Listen to Karen Dittman's Episode

Chapters

• 0:16 Welcome and Karen's Story
• 1:22 Community Struggles for Believers
• 3:18 Social Media Reality Check
• 4:55 Not Meant to Do Life Alone
• 7:09 Who's Your Person?

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Hey friends, welcome to another mini-sode. Did you get a chance to listen to the episode with Karen Dittman? She's got such a beautiful story Adoption, miracles with infertility how can you not love God after hearing her story and how beautifully he did things for her, and I was very happy to hear that her daughter is on the right track now in life? These things should give us hope as we listen to them from other people. That's why we're supposed to share our testimonies, because it's supposed to light a fire inside of us to be encouraged that maybe this can happen for us too, even if it ends up not happening because it's not God's will. But we should still have that expectant hope that it can. For anyone who's dealing with infertility don't give up hope for your miracle that maybe God will give you your own child. I've known several people who have dealt with infertility and maybe they went adoption, maybe they just gave up for a while and then it happened. So God does what God does and I love it when he shows off like that. Okay, so today we're going to talk about something else that Karen and I discussed in the episode, which was community, namely for moms. But men listening, I know you struggle with community as well. You have been told, if you're of a certain age, that you don't open up to other men. Maybe nowadays, if you're afraid to do it now because of the way that they say all male friendships they just look like they're light in the loafers is what I'll say, but you know what I'm actually getting at. I've heard people talking about that with Frodo and Samwise from the Lord of the Rings. Talking about that with Frodo and Samwise from the Lord of the Rings. There's a kid's book, it's called Mr Toad and something I can't remember, but they were trying to do that as well a couple years ago. It's ridiculous, is what it is. I'll go there. It's ridiculous. Men can have friendships. They can have deep friendships, and that doesn't mean something else. But anyway, we're not going to harp on that. I want to talk about community, especially for believers and women.

Speaker 1: 2:14

We struggle so much, like Karen mentioned in the episode, with feeling like we have to have it all together, especially if you look at the Instagram reels and you look at, maybe, your friends who are posting things. They're not always posting the difficult times of the day. Nobody wants to post that. Perhaps we should start doing it, but nobody wants to. We don't want people to see that we struggled again with snapping at our children or we snapped at our spouse because of something stupid. Nobody wants to post about that. But we're supposed to do life with each other. We're supposed to be there for each other in the good and the bad. So perhaps we should start posting when we're having a meltdown or we feel like we're going to have a meltdown. We shouldn't feel like we have to come to God or come to our friends and family put together in a nice pretty package and bow. It gives an unrealistic expectation to everyone who's looking at you, and it's not helpful for you either.

Speaker 1: 3:16

At the end of the day, do you feel any better knowing that you put it out there, something that isn't true? I know that I don't, and that's why I don't post a whole bunch of selfies of myself. I used to do that a lot when I was super insecure with who I was, but I've gotten to this place where I am no longer insecure with who I am, or if I am, just you know. Whatever. I don't know what to do about it. But posting pictures and getting people to like it and say comments is not going to help. I know because people have liked and commented and said nice things about my pictures and I still have low self-esteem now and then. So obviously that's not going to help, and it's probably not going to help somebody else in other ways as well. So why am I going to do it? That's just me not throwing shade to anybody who feels the need to do that, but perhaps you should find out why you feel the need to constantly post pictures about yourself, or that you feel the need to constantly post perfect pictures of yourself or of your family instead of just being real.

Speaker 1: 4:20

Facebook is supposed to be a place for us to connect with old friends, with family, and be social. So let's think about it in the sense of what we would be doing in real life. I guess, when you're out and about, would you really be pulling your phone out and trying to find the perfect angle of the sun and making sure you had the right filtering and that you looked all nice and smiley and take your picture while you're out with your friends? Or would you just take a picture with your friends and then post that? Because you're in a moment, you're having a happy, wonderful moment and maybe you don't look the best, but you don't care because you're happy and you're in that moment. Those are the kind of things we should be posting.

Speaker 1: 5:01

If we're struggling, we don't need to air our baggage on air, because that's also something we shouldn't be doing. But if you have somebody that you know you can trust, that you're friends with on social media, perhaps go to them in a private message and tell them what you're struggling with. Text somebody, call somebody. This is why we need community. We are here for each other. That's what we should be doing as Christians. Even more so. We are supposed to be here for our brothers and sisters and for everybody in the world who may need us, who may need to hear our story and the things that we've gone through. We aren't meant to do life alone. That's what Karen mentioned as well in this episode. We aren't meant to do life alone. There are going to be tough things in life where we need each other. And if you don't have anybody because you've been pushing them away like I used to do, where would I have been in my life had it not been for the people that God had placed in my life, if I had just shooed them away and been stubborn, like I was saying, I didn't need anybody. I was an island. I don't know where I would be. And if that is you today, whether you're a man or a woman struggling with this topic of community, you need friends. This reminds me of the episode I did with Jake Thurston. I will link that in the show notes.

Speaker 1: 6:25

It's a powerful episode as well, talking about the importance of community. I can't stress it enough how much we need each other. Through the dark times, through the good times, we need each other. The Bible says to weep with those who weep and rejoice with those who rejoice. You can't do that if you are alone.

Speaker 1: 6:44

If you have good news, who's the first person you want to tell? Think about that. That's the question I want you to mull over this week. If you have good news or if you have something terrible that you need to get off your chest, who is the first person you think of to talk to? And I know some of you are going to be like, oh well, I do that with God and that is wonderful. And I'm not making fun of that at all because, honestly, that would have been my answer too, because, honestly, that would have been my answer too, because that's what I do now is I come to God with everything, but I'm talking an actual person.

Speaker 1: 7:22

We need community, not just with God, but with others. It is stressed in the Bible that this is an important thing. So again, the question is when you have a bad day, who do you vent to? Who's the first person who comes to mind for that? And if you're having a good day, who is the first person who comes to mind that you want to tell them about it? It could be the same person, it could be a different person, and that is okay, but those are your people. Start there and make that connection deeper with that person. All right, that's today's mini-sode. I