Logged {Out}

I can not express how joyful I am to be writing this post. If you're friends with me on Facebook, you may have noticed, I'm not there anymore. That is because last week I made the decision to sign out on Facebook for the next couple months, as I deactivated my account. Over the past months the Lord had showed me through faithful friends how the amount of time I was spending on Facebook was indeed unwise. It is so easy to forsake real responsibilities and embrace the fake online world. Although in the past few months the amount of time I spent on Facebook had declined, its presence still remained. I can not tell you how many times I've caught myself looking at peoples profiles and thought "Why am I doing this? How did I even get to this person's page? This is so stupid!!" There are so many more profitable things I could be doing with my time, and definitely endless more ways to give glory to the Lord, but in my sinfulness I had neglected to even think of this! With so many crazy things going on in my life, I realized how Facebook was an easy distraction and time-waster.  I hope to use these next months to really get my priorities straight, and use my time and life to better honor and worship the Lord. 

After I deactivated my account, so many things became clear! Looking back its so silly that I would spend time being informed about different peoples lives that I really don't know. I don't need to know who he or she is dating, where you went for your summer '07 family vacation or what you are currently eating! So many relationships and "friendships" sprang up in my life because of Facebook, and needlessly so. I'm talking about those random people who you happen to meet at a friends birthday dinner, and now you talk to every night about nothing just because you both happen to be online at the same time. Its so meaningless! I'm so saddened when I look back at all the minutes wasted on empty chatter, but thankful to the Lord for having brought this to my attention.

Now here is the icing on the cake for me. My close friends, or those who I would call my best friends, we don't even hardly communicate on Facebook! Without Facebook, our friendship will undoubtedly continue and grow stronger. All that said, I see no reason for me to use my time in such a way. But before you think I hate the whole institution, there definitely are things I will miss! The magic birthday calendar is probably number 1 on that list. No way in my human frailty could I remember 700+ birthdays, so if this upcoming year I miss your birthday, I apologize in advance! Tell me and it will be marked on my real calendar, never to be forgotten again. :)

I also will also miss being able to more steadily communicate with those who live far away *cough* Katrina Herrera*cough*. One of my dear sisters and best friends lives in Rhode Island and attends the Naval Academy Prep School. Because of the time difference and our busy schedules it's hard to find time to always talk on the phone, so it definitely was nice to be able to leave her videos and receive wall posts from her, but thank God for texting and email :) 

Finally I definitely will miss all the encouragement that happens on Facebook. So many verses and quotes that give praise to the Lord are posted everyday, andIi definitely was thankful for that. But I'm definitely more thankful to be able to work on this area of my life that has been a struggle! 

Please, please PLEASE don't think I'm saying that it's wrong to have a Facebook, because its not!!! But when I took a survey of my life and looked at areas that I needed to work on, it became apparent that one practical thing to do in order to get rid of distractions was delete my account. For now I plan to fly solo, until school ends and tentatively reactivate it then. (with a better game plan for using my time and who I spend that time interacting with :)  So bon voyage multi-billion social network! I'm so excited to see what the Lord will do in my life and friendships because of this. Yay!!

XO

B