From Comparison to Contentment w/ Teryn Gregson

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Scripture can be a powerful tool against the pitfalls of digital life. Our guest, Teryn Gregson, opens up about her personal experiences with the toxic side of social media and offers unique insights into applying a "faith filter" to our interactions.

We talk about the anxiety and pressure social media can amplify as well as the profound peace found in seeking fulfillment through Christ rather than likes. By drawing a clear line between social influence and soul influence, we encourage focusing on real-life connections and spiritual growth, using social media as a supplementary tool rather than a substitute for genuine community.

Teryn shares practical advice on setting boundaries and achieving true rest, using the Bible as a compass for online behavior. With practical tips and Christian teachings, this episode equips listeners to navigate the digital landscape while staying grounded in God's word.

Links from Teryn:
Book: The Only Like That Matters Is God's
Website: www.teryngregson.com
Bible: She Reads Truth CSB
Revelation Bible Study - Jen Wilkin
Favorite App: YouVersion

Use code POD2025Q1-Q2 to get 3 months free when you download and register for the Glorify app!

If you are a Christian woman seeking to know God deeper, study Scriptures, pray with and for others, strengthen your faith, and support other in doing the same, this is the place for you! 

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction: The Online Trap
• 3:35 Taryn Gregson's Journey in Media
• 15:08 Biblical Solutions to Social Media Issues
• 22:58 Finding God's Purpose in Online Content
• 34:21 Using Scripture as a Digital Filter
• 44:53 Youth Ministry and Driving Disciples

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:04

At the Coffee and Bible Time podcast. Our goal is to help you delight in God's Word and thrive in Christian living. Each week, we talk to subject matter experts who broaden your biblical understanding, encourage you in hard times and provide life-building tips to enhance your Christian walk. We are so glad you have joined us. Welcome back to the Coffee and Bible Time podcast. This is Ellen, your host.

Speaker 1: 0:32

Today we are talking about using the Bible to transform our lives on social media. Endless scrolling can leave us feeling more disconnected and empty than ever before. Constant comparison and chasing likes can take a toll on our mental and spiritual well-being, not to mention the cancel, culture, bullying and negativity we can encounter at any time of day or night. But there's hope. Night, but there's hope. Joining us today is Taryn Gregson, the author of the book the Only Like that Matters Is God's Using the Bible to Transform your Life on Social Media. Taryn has experienced all sides of social media and is here to remind us that, through scripture, we can learn how to glorify God by how we present ourselves, how we consume content and how we interact online. This episode explores how we can find freedom and fulfillment, no matter our social media status. We can take simple yet powerful steps by diving into the Bible to see how God delivered his people from the trap of comparison and study how Jesus overcame rejection and persecution. So today, let's find joy in knowing that the only like that truly matters is God's Embrace, the freedom that comes with living for him and not for the fleeting approval of the online world.

Speaker 1: 2:06

Taryn Gregson is the co-founder of Driving Disciples, a ministry that is golf inspired by the gospel, which focuses on curriculum and combined youth Bible study in golf camps. Taryn now directs her efforts to her various mission projects, including Faithful Freedom with Taryn Gregson, presented by the we, the Patriots USA, which is broadcasted nationwide, and is the director and producer of Documentary Headshot. Additionally, she creates educational clean living resources and religious exemption guides on the Taryn Gregsoncom. All of this a stark turn from her more than a decade in sports journalism, formerly a broadcaster for CBS Sports, fox Sports Midwest, the St Louis Cardinals and finally the PGA Tour, before being fired for religious discrimination during the pandemic in November of 2021. Taryn, her husband Mitchell and their small children now live in their hometown of Waterloo, illinois, where they are focused on their family and homestead. Please welcome Taryn.

Speaker 2: 3:21

Thank you so much for having me, Ellen. I love everything that you guys are doing with your channels. It really does take to heart the message that I'm trying to to have you on and just talk about this very relevant topic.

Speaker 1: 3:48

You have had such an exciting career, especially concerning its intersection with social media, why don't you just start out by telling us a little bit about your story and how social media has impacted your life?

Speaker 2: 4:03

I was in sports journalism, which is also sports media and social media, for more than a decade. Whenever I was in journalism school at the University of Missouri is when Twitter came about. Facebook had just started, and so I was right there on the front lines of content, news and media intersecting and trying to figure out how to use social media and news dissemination. And so I've been a part and on the front lines of social media since the beginning, really from the media side of it, and you know I worked my way up in sports media and the later years of my career I was getting questions from parents. You know how do we navigate social media. You've been working in the business for so long. How do I help and encourage my teens navigating social media? And you know, quite frankly, at the time we were just pregnant with our first child when I started to get all these questions, and I'm like you know I'm not, I don't have a teenager in my household, so I'm not sure how much I can, how much I can tell you on that front, but I remember being a teenager it wasn't too long ago and that rules for all of us adults to really you know rules and parameters, though necessary, and we do need to set time limitations, and you know rules and parameters, though necessary. And we do need to set time limitations, and you know limitations on the type of content we're allowing our children to see. Those types of things only go so far, and many of us break away from rules after a while.

Speaker 2: 5:39

Right, we need to approach social media from a biblical worldview. We have to look at this as such a secular medium. It's such a secular world on social media, but we can't leave aside our I call it the faith filter in my book. We can't leave aside our faith filter. We can't leave aside that biblical lens that we are called to see the world through when we're on social media. We have to apply it to that.

Speaker 2: 6:08

So that's the first step and really my encouragement to anyone, and especially to parents, is that we have to say to our kids look, these issues like comparison, like idolatry and modesty, all of these different things that we're experiencing on social media, these have been around for forever, since the beginning of time and temptation, especially since the beginning of time, and God has shown us through his word how to overcome these things, how he's delivered us from these various themes that we are experiencing on social media, so the lessons that we can glean from scripture. It's not on my authority as a parent. It's not on my authority as a person. It's coming down from God. He's giving us these tools. So let's look at the Bible and how we can approach social media rather than it just simply being okay. I can only allow myself or my teen X amount of time online. We talk about screen time limitations in the book, because those are important too, but those are very much secondary to the themes and the lessons that we can learn from scripture.

Speaker 1: 7:18

So important. I thought it was really interesting. Maybe we should just also talk about some of the most common struggles people are facing with social media. And I thought it was interesting in your book that you also called out some that can kind of be innocent pitfalls as well that you might not think of.

Speaker 2: 7:40

Yeah, absolutely. I think that you know so many people. We know the big issues that are happening on social media with our youth. We know that the big, glaring, nasty ones, right, the ones like pornography, the ones like modesty and all these different things those are, you know, rearing their giant heads, and we know those are. Those are bad, but sometimes those little innocent temptations are actually what you know are preventing us from leaning in and having a closer relationship with God. They're the things that are keeping us stuck in scrolling instead of, you know, putting our phones down or using that time on our phones to glorify God. You're right, those little things we have to be able to recognize, those little triggers that we have in our lives that are keeping us back, that, you know, maybe seem a little innocent at first but really are holding you back. So, you know, I mentioned the theme of comparison. This is something that we unknowingly fall a prey to when we're on social media. Right, I think that we have put high expectations on ourselves to as we look and we see the picture perfect profiles that other people have online and comparison, something that people have struggled with since the beginning of time, and I think many of us don't even realize we're doing so. Right, we might see let's just use the example of a home designer, interior decorating and or the clothes that you wear, kind of some materialistic things that you might see online that you're like, wow, that looks beautiful, that looks pretty, I fall short of these things. You might not be saying to yourself I fall short of these things. You might not be saying to yourself I fall short of these things. But you're sitting there thinking, okay, well, how can I improve this? How can I make this better? I would love I'm pinning this I would love to, you know, redecorate this room or this area of this room, because this inspired me to do so. Though innocent and though not bad things to do, it can kind of lead us into a spiral out of control and it affects our self-esteem. It directs our attention from more important things in our lives the service that we can be doing with inside our own walls of our home. The service we can be doing inside our church, our communities, things like that. Yes, if you're a mom, be doing inside our church, our communities, things like that, yes, you know, if you're a mom, for example, homemaking and beautifying the home is a wonderful part of the job that God has called you to do, but don't let it distract you from the other things. Social media makes those images front and center for us, and it takes our focus off more important things, though you know, like I said, beautifying your home's not a bad thing if you idolize it and put it on a pedestal.

Speaker 2: 10:28

One example that I use for comparison, for example in the book, is the fact that you know, god's people have always been doing this. How did God's people get an earthly king right? You know, moses had the voice of God himself leading the Israelites out of Egypt, and yet the people still were looking around themselves at the pagan culture God's people and said, hey, they have an earthly king, they have someone that rules over them, they have a leader that is a man. We would like to have that too. They chose that over God as their leader, speaking to Moses and delivering that message directly to the people. So you know that is such a glorious image to think of.

Speaker 2: 11:19

Right that God is speaking directly to Moses, and yet these people chose to have an earthly king. How? Social media is many layers below that. How would we think that we would be exempt from comparison in our lives. So by identifying how God's people have had these issues in the past, how God has delivered them from that, namely that God now lives among us, right, and is the leader in our own hearts and in our own lives. Being able to lean into things like that will allow us to recognize when we're struggling with something as innocent as comparison and we can flag it and redirect our heart posture.

Speaker 1: 14:06

Yes, you know. One thing it made me think of was economics class in college which, I have to be very honest, I did not care for.

Speaker 1: 14:16

But something that stuck with me so much was the opportunity cost and I feel like when I read what you had said about, I thought of it as the opportunity cost of spending time scrolling versus doing something more valuable or meaningful talking with people face to face, calling a friend on a phone and it was interesting because, kind of when I was preparing, my sister-in-law called me and she's a caller, but I always just enjoy those conversations so much and it's just, it's so much richer than you know I could have not answered and been scrolling or whatever. I could have not answered and been scrolling or whatever and just taking the time to interact with people. So I love that you get sort of down to a deeper level of like. These are things that we might be doing, that we might not even realize. There could be other things that would be even greater, more God honoring or more beneficial.

Speaker 2: 15:28

Absolutely, and you mentioned picking up the phone and calling someone.

Speaker 2: 15:32

You're still using your phone, you're still using your device.

Speaker 2: 15:35

These are still wonderful tools that we can be using to glorify God's kingdom and to fellowship with one another, and so that's something, too, that I emphasize that we can be using our devices as tools rather than being idols in our lives and things that control us and control our time and consume us. We can use them as tools to, you know, bolster our relationship with our faith friends, and you know whether it's via the phone call, a group text message, that you're praying. You know putting prayer requests in, and you know encouraging one another or using social media to do so. You know, when you come across something inspirational like maybe some of the content that you guys are putting out about how to study your Bible you see something like that send it to your faith friend and show them ways that they can bolster their walk with Christ by using social media as a tool rather than letting it consume your life. And I think that that's an important takeaway is that people realize you know it's not all bad. You know we can use it for good.

Speaker 1: 16:48

Yes, absolutely. You ask the readers of your book to take time to do devotionals at the end of each of the chapters and you ask some questions that I found to be so helpful, even thinking about this topic myself, that sort of ask us to examine our social media memories to help identify the impact that it's having on our lives, and I just wanted to share a couple of those questions with our listeners. One was take a moment and think of a time before social media. Then you're going to fast forward and to a memory when you created your first social media account and eventually you know you're getting to the point of really getting down deeper into some of the posts you're making, and did you ever wonder what God would think of your post? So I love that you have this practical exercise and I think it's important for us sort of to take a self-assessment to see where are we currently at. How about for you when you answered these questions for yourselves? Were there any surprises that you learned?

Speaker 2: 18:12

Yeah, I think so. I think for me, you know that question. For that first question about you know think of a time before social media, you know, teenagers, because this book's written for teens and for women and parents and grandparents, I think teens, you know teenagers, because this book's written for teens and for women and parents and grandparents, I think teens, you know reading that question would be like what do you mean? I don't know a time without social media. But some of us do remember that time before social media and I think that many of us can reflect on a more simple time, a time with less anxiety associated with it, though I do think, and I hope that people when they think about this, we were on a fast pace as a society prior to social media. We kept making our lives more and more busy. Technology was allowing us to make our lives more and more busy by aiding us and making things, our tasks, quicker. We were going down this path and social media, I believe and I perceive, is kind of that breaking point of us, of us knowing that we need to lean in closer to God. People are searching. Kids feel anxious and depressed more than ever because they have that hole in their life, and the only thing that can really fill that hole in your life is Jesus Christ. And so people are. Social media is making them realize how empty they feel because of this fast paced society that we're involved in, and so they're searching. And the search, the search is over, the search is Jesus Christ right, and then for those of us that have found Jesus Christ, just like any part of our faith, walk is using that sanctification process to help us lean in closer and closer to Christ and to God, and so social media is no exception to that.

Speaker 2: 20:00

So, yes, I think that many of us, if we sit and reflect our lives prior to social media being invented, and or our lives prior to getting on social media and making social media accounts, maybe you might have happy memories, happier memories of some of those times, and you might think of it just in the same way as you know a grandmother or a great grandmother might think of. You know times being simpler and slower and and and better, because slow is how you connect with God. Slowing down is how you take that time and that rest to take a deep breath and to pray and to speak to the Holy Spirit inside of you. And so, yes, I think it is important that we are analyzing not just the content that we're putting out there. Is it glorifying God the things that I'm saying, the pictures that I'm posting, all of those things? Would God, you know, be appreciative of those things that are going out there? And I want to clarify that, of course, we are not here to seek God's approval. He has already given all of that gracefully, but we should be living our lives to glorify him.

Speaker 2: 21:09

I think that we also need to be very focused on the content that we are consuming. Is that content glorifying God? Because that old adage, garbage in, garbage out. You know, if we are consuming things that are not glorifying to God, you know those are going to have an effect on our mood, our anxiety, our you know our overall mental health and our overall heart posture and attitude toward the world around us. Are those things chipping away at your Christian worldview and your faith filter that I'm talking about? Are they trying to rub them? Rub it and dissolve it away?

Speaker 1: 21:52

Or is it making it clearer and easier to see through that lens, looking for a space where faith and fellowship come alive? Welcome to the Coffee and Bible Time community, a place where women like you come together to deepen their relationship with God. One cup of coffee and one Bible study at a time. Explore our devotional library packed with inspiring resources to guide your quiet time. Gain exclusive access to our Bible Study Academy and learn how to study God's Word with confidence and clarity. Share your heart in a supportive, christ-centered community and grow in faith by doing Bible study together with women who understand your journey. Visit coffeeandbibletimecom slash community and join today. Let's seek God's Word together, one sip at a time, at coffeeandbibletimecom slash community. That's such an excellent. Excellent point, you know, and really that's kind of what I wanted to talk about more is to elaborate on how can god be using social media to draw us closer to him. You know you, you talked about sort of this emptiness that we feel inside. In what other ways do you see God using social media?

Speaker 2: 23:23

It's a way to have a larger outer circle that is formed around you as a community, a Christian community, to help bolster you up right. We should have that inner circle always in a face-to-face. You know manner that we all operate with one another. We were built, god built us in his image. He wants us to fellowship with one another. We're called to fellowship with one another. So you know I emphasize that in the book that you know, social media influencers are coveted in this society. Right, the amount of followers that you have can turn into a dollar signs for people. They make a living off social media, which is wonderful, that's great. But it you know, so many kids look at that and see that, as you know, oh, I only have a few followers. This person must be better than me because they have more followers, and that's just simply not true. We're all made in the image of God and we're all beautiful in one way or another and built for his kingdom. And so that's when we need to realize that having a social influence is not as important as having a soul influence, impacting others for eternity. And your influence is the greatest on the people directly around you that God has placed in your life. So that influencer that has millions of followers is actually has less influence than you do on the people directly around you in your life, and so you need to understand that and see that as a wonderful gift and an opportunity to let those people pour into you and you pour into those people in return. So your soul influence is most important, and so use that as, again, don't let social media replace these very important things in your life, like fellowship, going to church, being in the church, building with one another. Don't let watching it on YouTube replace your time at church. Don't let Facebook and these things where you can have group online Bible studies those are great I'm not saying these are bad things but don't let it replace your small group time that you spend in person with one another. So, again, having that inner circle that's the sole influence group that you are responsible for around you, keep that intact. Use social media as your secondary and third, you know fourth outer circle that's around you. So surrounding yourself with Christian content that you're consuming, wholesome, you know, beautiful content that's uplifting, that helps bolster your walk in Christ. That is important.

Speaker 2: 26:09

So look at the people you would not want to be necessarily spending a lot of time and friend. We want to have friends of all walks, but you don't want to spend the majority of your time and you're, as with somebody that is, you know, negative and bringing you down and maybe, you know, doing bad things in their lives or or things like that. Just in the same way, you wouldn't want that person to be your best friend, necessarily. You don't want to follow those types of people on social media either, because they are going to have an indirect impact on your heart posture, on your anxiety, your mental health, all of these things. So look at the people that you follow, the channels, the organizations, all those different things that you follow on social media, the channels, the organizations, all those different things that you follow on social media. That's just as important as choosing your everyday in-person friends and the people that you interact with.

Speaker 2: 27:05

So really take a hard look at that. There's no reason and it's not a big deal to unfollow people. I say that's one of the big steps is just, you know, as you're consuming content on social media and someone posts something that you know really doesn're consuming content on social media and someone posts something that you know really doesn't sit well with, you, go ahead and unfollow them. That's okay. You know they'll have other followers and other people, that they have their audience. You're not hurting them by unfollowing them. If it's not sitting well with you, it's okay. You don't need that negative influence in your life. You need the positive, christ-centered influence in your life. So follow those types of accounts instead and kind of try to weed out the ones that are affecting you.

Speaker 1: 27:46

Yes, that would be exactly my number one advice too. I remember there was a point in time where, you know, somehow I was in a study or something and we ended up talking about unfollowing. Like, you have a permission to unfollow things that don't make you feel good, and if you're walking away from social media, thinking, oh it's so horrible, it's this and that, then you have permission to unfollow, and I had done that a number of years ago, and so now, like on my Instagram, are only things that I absolutely love. So sometimes, when I hear people say, oh, I just I hate social media, and I and I think to myself, oh, my goodness, I like I love the ones that I have, and so I find them so encouraging and uplifting and a lot of creativity and art and all these other things that shines God through them, and so that's really good advice, taryn.

Speaker 2: 28:54

Absolutely. I think. So many people think that they might be hurting the feelings of the person or what have you and you're not? They don't know. Just unfollow them, it's okay. As somebody who has a medium-sized social media account, I have no idea who's following and unfollowing me. It's okay. Do what's best for you.

Speaker 1: 29:12

Yes, absolutely. As Christians, how can we use and consume online content differently than the rest of the world?

Speaker 2: 29:25

I think, in that same way that we were just speaking about, you know, you have to remove some of those things that are you know we were talking about things that are making bringing you down. We can also remove some of those things that we might not actually know that are bringing us down or are filling us with, you know, messaging that is actually rejecting God and, you know, moving us away from him. So you know, I know that I use Taylor Swift sometimes as an example and I don't mean to pick on her because I grew up listening to her music, but lately, frankly, some of her posts have really been directing people away from Christ-centered thinking, away from using that faith filter. So you know, people like that that maybe are in sports or and I come from the sports world or Hollywood, or things like that, that you think, oh, this is no big deal, they're a part of pop culture. I think maybe you might need to reassess and maybe relook at some of these things and especially if your teens are consuming some of this content, what sort of messaging is that giving them, when they might not be as strong in their faith walk at a young age? You know, think of the messaging that's pouring into them and to the young girls and to the boys about some of this stuff. So I think that some of the things people think, well, it's a part of mainstream. Well, maybe you kind of need to reassess some of these things that are a part of mainstream. You kind of need to reassess some of these things that are a part of mainstream. And that's one step again further that you can take and how you're filtering your social media content as well.

Speaker 2: 31:04

And I think, too, taking that biblical worldview to your social media is hard when we are getting our news consumption from social media and many of the news headlines because that's another huge aspect of the social media scape is not just social media influencers but news and how we're getting our hard news. Take a strong look at the news outlets that you're following and maybe you need to weed just talking about sheer volume weed some of the news out, not because of the content that they're feeding you, but how much of that news content you're getting right. Too much news, too much headlines. Those things can really have an effect on us and I think this is part of why so many kids have such high anxiety and why people currently, right now have so much high anxiety because they see these headlines from around the country, from around the world, and they feel very helpless because they are problems that are. They are very large problems.

Speaker 2: 32:14

There are problems that are bigger than us that we have very little ability to have a large impact on and God has. We are not God. We cannot affect and change the world. That's God's job. And so I really want to emphasize and I do emphasize in the book how we are pieces in God's puzzle. We're very important, special pieces that God has put on this earth in his puzzle, but we're just a small piece, so we've only been in charge of that.

Speaker 2: 32:42

Again, that soul influence circle around us. We are not here and it is not our responsibility to change the entire world, and I think that these news headlines really weigh on people. They definitely are weighing on our young people, who feel helpless, and they weigh on us as adults too, who feel helpless. So, yes, we need to be informed citizens and know what's going on around us, but I think we really do need to bring down the amount of news headlines that we're seeing on a daily basis and so that way we don't feel overwhelmed, that way we don't feel helpless. We can all have a small impact on our circles, but we're not God, and so we need to find peace and rest in that. And it's hard to find peace and rest in that if you're being bombarded left and right with news headlines over and over and over again, all day long.

Speaker 1: 33:32

Hmm.

Speaker 2: 33:33

Thank you.

Speaker 1: 33:34

That's some more great tips for how we can just navigate all the options that we have out there and try to reduce the level of anxiety that comes with. Like you said, the news is huge. Well, you in the book, I thought it was kind of fun that you talked about how you know the idea of influencers and comparison and the promotion of false ideas. All these things are similar to what God's people have experienced in the past and and you have some examples of that and you've touched on a little bit of it briefly here. But as you were writing this book, like, how did that come to life for you? Like when you thought through the terms of now versus what happened in the past.

Speaker 2: 34:31

You know, the Holy Spirit is so wonderful, right, that sometimes, when we are studying things or experiencing things and we pick up the study that we're doing or we go to church on Sunday, somehow those things align with what is troubling our hearts or what we're focusing on in our study time. You know the Lord presents those things to you, and so that kind of happened to me and all of these things. You know all no one's exempt from these struggles, myself included. You know I've experienced all of these things that I'm speaking about in the book and you know this took me four years to write, though it's a quick read and simple because I wanted, you know, teens and everybody in the audience to be able to to pick it up and get through it easily and quickly because of our fast-paced society. It took me four years to write this so, as I was visiting these different themes that I knew were issues in social media, because I had lived them out personally and in my career, god was showing me these things through my study times, and so that's why, at the beginning of this book, I tell people how I would pray every time I would speak about or would write down to sit down to write, excuse me and ask the Holy Spirit to lead me. And he, really he, the Holy Spirit really did in both my writing and in times when I wasn't writing, exploring these topics, times when I wasn't writing, exploring these topics. So it's really Holy Spirit driven. And you know something, too, that I want to mention to people that you're talking about these struggles that we have God, just like we should put parameters and screen time parameters up for ourselves, god has put parameters on his people and one of the things that he has always emphasized it's in the 10 commandments, it's it's in various parts of the Bible is the Sabbath taking time to rest and to, um, you know, be able to reflect and to grow in our relationship with him. But to rest God rested himself on the seventh day.

Speaker 2: 36:29

We don't know how to rest as a society anymore and so many of us have have resulted to scrolling on our social media as resting. You know we're like, oh, we're going to check out, I'm just going to get on social media as I kind of mentally check out. Well, scientifically speaking, you're actually still getting that dopamine hit from the screen time that you're that you're subjecting yourself to, not to mention. You know, you're really not resting, right You're. You're still looking at stuff, you're still, um, you know, having your brain um, do that and you're still distracting yourself from having that, that time in the word and having that intimate time.

Speaker 2: 37:11

And so, you know, that's something that I talk about in, actually, one of the later chapters is by looking at Hebrews 4 and the four R's for a true rest formula. How do we do that? Well, we need to read God's word so we can reflect on what it says and then, therefore, reflect on your life and possibly confess where you need to, because the Bible is going to reveal to you some of your shortcomings and take those to the Lord. And then that's how, when you give those things to the Lord, when you give over those things to God in your prayer time, then you can receive his grace and mercy, and that's how you're going to really find rest. You're going to find rest by taking those things to the Lord, getting them off of your heart and instead of, you know, looking at your phone and building up your anxiety in the ways that we've already talked about with the news headlines. In comparison, Absolutely.

Speaker 1: 38:14

The word that comes to my mind with that is peace, and that's something you know that God gives us when we do take that time to invest in him and through you know, reading his word and prayer. And I know that that's not even a word that people probably associate too much with social media scrolling, that's for sure. Well, what else does the Bible have to say? How is the Bible our handbook for how to participate in and consume and even combat social media issues?

Speaker 2: 39:07

Sunday school and just kind of disregarded as we've gone along with our adult life. The tools like the armor of God, you know, those tools are actually really essential for how we are able to discern, learn discernment and therefore be able to put these things that we've talked about into practice online, and our teens really need to be equipped with these things, with the armor of God, and they need to understand, then, how to apply it to their life not just learn what the armor of God is and move on, but to understand how they can then apply it to their everyday life. So we go through that and the sword of the spirit and is one of the key ways that we can do so looking at God's word right and understanding what's in it. So, therefore, we are able to understand what is okay and what is not okay on social media. I mentioned modesty and pornography at the beginning of this podcast. It is a very real struggle for many.

Speaker 2: 39:59

Online, modesty is an easy one to talk about. For example, many teens, young adults, kids that are in college, women in particular, have a distorted understanding of what should be presented to others, and it's because of the secular messaging that they are bombarded with. And my heart goes out to them. I understand that they're struggling with how they're supposed to present themselves on social media visually right, and how they are posing the clothes that they are wearing because of what they're seeing on social media and because of what society is telling them is beautiful and pretty and right. Well, if we have, if we're enacting this sort of the spirit and we're pouring into our daughters and showing them what the Bible is telling us about modesty, what Proverbs tells us about a glorious woman and how to not tear your house down before you've even built your house as a woman, then they're going to be more able to say no to some of these things, able to say no to some of these things, and they're going to be able to understand why God has a better, more glorious plan and design for them than what social media is telling them is what they should be doing. And so these girls, my heart goes out to them because I even saw, I see it within the church.

Speaker 2: 41:24

I've been involved in youth groups and I I followed some of these girls on social media and I'm seeing the pictures that they're posting and the TikToks that they're sharing, and my heart goes out to them because they're um, they have not had that poured into them, or they're rejecting it or or disregarding it because the secular messaging is just bombarding them and it's so difficult for them to navigate, and so they're putting their bodies out there in ways that I think that they might regret later on.

Speaker 2: 41:54

And it's therefore, you know, tempting our young men and exposing them to viewpoints of the body and of women prior to marriage that is really having a detriment on them. Most boys, most men, are being exposed to pornography via social media and online at the average age of eight years old, because, you know, we have oversaturated ourselves with this, with these images and these, this imagery and social media plays into that. So the armor of God is a huge part, the sword of the spirit is a huge part of pouring into our girls, pouring into our boys, of what the Bible talks about with in regards to modesty, how we should be presenting ourselves or viewing other people. Social media is a battleground. It is a spiritual battleground and sexuality sexual. You know, presentation is a big, big, big elephant in the room when it comes to social media.

Speaker 1: 42:58

I'm with you there it does. It makes me sad to see some people, or young women that are, that are doing that and just wanting to say do you realize you are a daughter of the king, your true value, your worth comes from Christ, and so we can keep praying, and I think just this book that you have here is going to be so, so helpful for parents and teens alike as they read it. Well, taryn, as we start to wrap things up here, tell us about some of the other efforts that you are working on with the youth.

Speaker 2: 43:42

Well, thank you. My husband and I around the same time, coincidentally, that I started writing this book, we launched our ministry, our nonprofit 501c3, driving Disciples, and my husband comes from. He's a former professional golfer on the lower levels and now is a golf instructor. And I worked in golf sports media for quite some time and played golf for much of my life as well, and so we saw the parallels between life and golf, and so many people that play life understand how golf or, excuse me, that play golf understand how golf is such a metaphor for life and therefore it is also in alignment with the gospel. And so we found ways to weave those two together and to create a summer camp, a golf and Bible study camp called Driving Disciples, and to pour into our youth, to introduce some to the game of golf for the first time, or some to some of the deeper levels of the gospel and how it interacts and weaves with our life.

Speaker 2: 44:47

The same way the book, it's the same way of this book. You know they both have the same life, application, missions and what we are trying to do. And so I talk about in the book and this applies to Driving Disciples how 50% of the youth that are growing up in the church are leaving in adulthood. Only 9% of Americans attend church, so 50% of that 9% are leaving the church by adulthood, and so that's why we launched Driving Disciples to encourage these children, who are already curious about Christ, who maybe are already in the church, to understand that this does apply to their life and they can take it to their life when they go on to college and go on to be adults, and to keep them in the church and to also expose kids that maybe haven't been exposed to the gospel through the, to the gospel through the game of golf.

Speaker 2: 45:45

And so that's our mission is to have life application. The Bible applies to your life. It's not just this book that was written as an inspiration for people to have motivational speech and or to give you rules for your life. No, you can apply it to your life. So that's why we need to apply it to social media, and we can apply it to sports and the other areas in our life, and those are our missions, for the book and for Driving Disciples, excellent, excellent missions.

Speaker 1: 46:14

Well, taryn, where can people find out more information about your book and your ministry?

Speaker 2: 46:28

If you go to TarynGregsoncom that's T-E-R-Y-N-G-R-E-G-S-O-Ncom, there's a link for Driving Disciples, which is drivingdisciplesorg, and there's also a link called book on my book tab on my website where you can get all sorts of resources for the book. We talk about tools. Memory verse screen savers are on there for people to download for free. Some outlines on how you could turn this into a Bible study for yourself, your small group, your teens group, resources for churches All the various things are under the book tab at taryngregsoncom.

Speaker 1: 46:58

Awesome. Well, we will make sure that we have those links in the show notes Before we go. I just want to ask you a couple of our favorite Bible study tool questions. Taryn, what Bible is your go-to Bible and what translation is it?

Speaker 2: 47:15

My go-to Bible is the she Reads Truth Bible, which is a CSB translation. My husband has his he Reads Truth Bible, and so it's great to compare the two of ours together. I also love my ESV study Bible a hundred percent. If I need some commentary or to understand something, that's the one I go directly to, and so that's my. Those are my two go-to Bibles, but I have a collection of Bibles on my shelf from over the years, some personal and passed down through the family. Oh how beautiful.

Speaker 1: 47:50

That's awesome. Okay, those are both great, great recommendations. Do you have any favorite journaling supplies or anything that you like to use to enhance your Bible study experience?

Speaker 2: 48:01

I am a big fan of the skinny highlighters. I love those because then I can make circles or boxes or highlight around things. And you know, there's no shame in a directed Bible study either, especially I'm a young mom. I have three kids, four and under, and so right now I need those directed Bible study that are helping me go line by line through it. And right now I'm going through Revelation Jen Wilkins' new Revelation study, and so that's a great tool. Revelation Jen Wilkins new revelation study, and so that's a great tool. That's something. There's some journaling involved in that one.

Speaker 2: 48:34

And then, because I have a four-year-old and a two-year-old in addition to our newborn baby, most of my supplies are kid oriented. And you know, a woman who's one of my faith friends the other day told me you know, please give yourself grace for not having as much time as you'd like to be in the word, because you're worshiping God through the time that you're spending teaching your kids, which we do every single day. And so one of the big things that I love to recommend to people and I brought it along with me to the studio are the big theology for little hearts books. These are catechisms that they break down into themes for little kids so toddlers can start to understand catechism like questions and answers and themes and vocabulary as well, hearing that. So we do that every night before bed.

Speaker 2: 49:24

My kids love it my two-year-old and my four-year-old. I fight over picking out what catechism we're going to read that night. It's really cute, and we do. I love Proverbs for kids. I think that's important. We do a lot of craft work at home. You know we do homeschooling for the littles and our church sends take-home lessons home with the kids so we can reemphasize what they're learning at church throughout the week and just a couple minutes here and there. It's not intensive by any means, but those are some of the tools that we're using as a family right now. But nightly catechisms with your littles, finding an age-appropriate catechism for them I highly recommend.

Speaker 1: 50:06

Oh, that's such a great tip. Okay, we will include those links as well in the show notes. Lastly, what is your favorite app or website for Bible study tools?

Speaker 2: 50:16

The YouVersion app is my favorite, the Bible app I go to it every day on my phone. In fact, when I talk about the memory verse screensavers in the book, that's something I used to do all the time. I would highlight something, take a screenshot and make it my screensaver on my phone so I could try and remember and memorize that verse. We've created some beautiful ones for you on my website at taryngrigsoncom book, but the YouVersion app I do that If I have a question. It's just so wonderful. You can search easily through scripture. It's great. You can do devotionals and studies on it, which is fantastic. If you're like me and you have a baby under one arm, you can still use it. It's a wonderful biblical tool Like that's what I'm talking about Biblical social media tools. The YouVersion app, gotquestionsorg, is also one of my favorites. If I have a question about anything or want to learn more about anything under the sun in the Bible, that is a phenomenal resource.

Speaker 1: 51:15

Both of those are awesome suggestions. We will include links to those as well, for the YouVersion Coffee and Bible Time does have a couple of devotionals on the YouVersion app, so you'll have to check those out. I will. All right, taryn. Well, thank you so much for joining us today, your story, your willingness, your authenticity. We've been so blessed by your experience and we thank you for pouring into this topic to help teens and parents alike as we all try to navigate and really show God the glory through social media.

Speaker 2: 51:53

Thank you. May God bless everyone's time on social media. Thank you.

Speaker 1: 51:57

Thank you so much. For those of you listening, we will have a link to Taryn's book. Highly recommend that you get that and we appreciate you all so much. We thank you for listening. Have a blessed day.