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Mother’s Day Angst, Because: Social Media

Holidays on social media are weird, you know?

Basically everyone posts about the holiday that we already know we are all celebrating. Like someone announced, “We pause our regularly scheduled programming to bring you this bulletin: IT’S MOTHERS DAY!”

I have this inner hippie or hipster or something. It crops up unexpectedly, causing me to feel extremely resistant about doing whatever it is everyone else is doing. Because it’s already been done, man.

Mother’s Day, for example, people posted pictures of their mom or with their mom. Husbands posted pictures of their wives, declaring her to be the best mom. mothersdayMoms posted pictures of their kids, because that’s what makes them a mom. And even if people weren’t sharing pictures, they gave us status updates containing these same sentiments.

Being a cliche-hating rebel, I don’t know how to handle this.

Obviously, I too am celebrating Mother’s Day, so do I talk about it?

I want my social media presence to be an organic representation of my Instagrammable life, which means I should post. However, anything I could say about my Mother’s Day sounds just like the stuff that everyone else is putting out there.

So if I share any kind of Mother’s Day status, I’m a sheep, just following the herd. (Or fold. Or whatever sheep travel in.)

I can ignore the holiday completely, but then it’s like Mother’s Day isn’t even real. Because if you don’t Facebook it or Tweet it or Instagram it, it didn’t happen.

And if I post about non-holiday related things…

like a picture of my plain Greek yogurt with fresh berries, hand picked from my garden that have glow decoration accessories(but NOT an adorable breakfast-in-bed because that’s a Mother’s Day cliche that’s been posted 20 times before 9am)

…then I feel like a compete Grinch. People will probably think, “She must not believe in Mother’s Day. Maybe she’s judging all of us for celebrating Mother’s Day.”

Plus, I have to consider the pressure on the people around me. Do I want my husband to post a status about how I’m the awesomest mom in the world? If he does, he’s a sell-out, buying into greeting-card propaganda. But if he doesn’t, will people think he doesn’t love me? Or that I’m a bad mom?

To conclude, I should probably add a serious plea to break free of social media angst and be liberated from its control. I should tell you that you’re all beautiful, no matter what you posted on Mother’s Day and to just be yourselves. But I won’t. Because that’s SO been done before.

* Just to clarify, I succumbed to peer pressure and posted all kinds of Mother’s Day related pictures. But my husband kept it cool and didn’t do any cliche status update about my Proverbs 31-ness. He’s rad like that.

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Jesus, and What He Apparently Thinks About Social Media

Last Sunday, Chris preached at a friend’s church about the God Who Came Near.

I feel like He came near to me today. In the line at the post office, while I was reading Twitter.

I mean, it wasn’t an earth-shattering moment. I didn’t fall on the floor, speaking in tongues. (Thank goodness. That would have been awkward.) It wasn’t even a specific tweet that caught my eye.

But somehow, as I read my twitter stream, I felt the Lord come near and grow my heart for Him. He stretched my understanding of His nature. By His grace, He allowed me to gain a deeper wonder for aspects of His character that my humanity isn’t inclined to “like.”

There are so many paradoxes in that experience. I wasn’t doing anything “Christian-y.” I was using social media, which isn’t considered spiritual. I was mailing a Christmas package, which could be viewed as commercialism. And Jesus met me.

And that’s so spiritual. Because Jesus wants to encounter our hearts in the mundane. He isn’t afraid of social media or the commercialization of Christmas. He’s so much bigger than that.

I kind of feel like we shouldn’t fight and kick and rail against “non-spiritual” aspects of life. Rather, embrace them as opportunities to meet with Jesus. You never know where He might show up. Maybe at the post office.

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