Do you ever feel like life is passing you by? Are you looking at your phone too much to see what is actually going on around you? Honestly, I bet you haven’t. You know why? Because you are probably too concerned with the next text message or Facebook post. Did I hit a nerve? I hope so. That’s what it took to get me to look up.
One day I was scrolling through Facebook on my phone. My son kept asking me who each of the people in the pictures were. I realized I didn’t even know most of them. Then it hit me. Why in the world am I spending one more minute scrolling through pictures of someone else’s life when I had one to live right here in front of me? That one little question from my son sparked a realization in me that I couldn’t ignore.
If you read no other book this year, you hope you read Hands Free Mama by Rachel Stafford. I have been reading this book for over a month now and I’m only half way through it. This isn’t a book to be devoured in one sitting. It’s one you read a little bit each day. Take one morsel. Digest it. Implement it. Pray over it. See God’s blessings over it. Then the next day, read the next one and do the same. It has taken every ounce of restraint I have to only read a little each day. It has become the last thing I read during my daily quiet time. Just a page or two to give me something to think about for the day.
A little over a year ago I decided to step back a bit from the blog and begin living life away from the computer. I had hit a point where I was living life vicariously through others and I didn’t even realize it. You know what I did realize? I wasn’t living life at all. I was watching others live life. Wow. The honestly of that revelation made me sick to my stomach.
The Lord has given me many great experiences and opportunities to live. Instead of embracing them and trusting what He had for me, I was squandering this amazing life and choosing to be a voyeur into other peoples lives. More than that, I was still relying on myself in every single area of life. I was going through the motions of faith and checking off the “christian things”, but not truly living them out.
Recently a friend brought something to light that most of us don’t think of. She said, “Most young moms grew up in the social media wave. They have engrained habits with electronics that are crippling them now that they have small children.” She’s absolutely right. You know the saddest thing about that? Your kids are watching you. Every. Single. Thing. You. Do. If you are constantly on your phone, they’re learning that life is lived through that device glued to your hand. They think relationship is in that device, not with the people around you.
Is that you? I’ll admit social media can be fun. It can make life easier for those of us that have a hard time getting out due to little ones around our feet. However, it can so easily suck us in and prevent us from living the life of abundance that God has for us.
My greatest take-away from reading Hands Free Mama was awareness. I have a new awareness of my actions. It is my responsibility as to what choice I make now that I can see what affect my actions are having and teaching to those little eyes and ears around me.
Would you like to wake up to life around you? To begin to live life to the fullest yourself instead of watching others have all the fun? My simplest advice. Put down the phone. 🙂
Have you read Hands Free Mama? I would love hear your thoughts on the book or the struggles you have in this new digital age of social media. I look forward to hearing from you!
Thank you for sharing this honest post. It is so true–I have struggled so much myself. Praying for all of us to find freedom from distraction to pursue a life of purpose and passion!
Amen!!
Really good stuff 🙂 thanks
I’ve read this book, and it is so good! I, like many others, have struggled with this, and I felt the message was a timely one. It makes me happy to see others working towards the same improvements as me, and it gives me more hope that we’ll all make it!