The internet is a loud place.
If I ever doubt the validity of that statement, all I have to do is think through how many times I’ve used it in the past 24 hours:
- got my dinner recipe
- read blogs
- sent messages via facebook
- tracked spending with Mint
- uploaded a pic to instagram
- shared a notebook with my husband via Evernote
- listened to Pandora
- tracked a run with Nike
- browsed Craigslist for a chair
- listened to a sermon
The point is: in all these things, I’m opening up my mind and dumping information inside. Sometimes I even use the internet to dump info inside of other people’s minds. Like now, for example.
What is your mind’s filter when you use the internet?
When you read blogs? Or check social media? How do you process the information?
If I’m not careful, sometimes I just start reacting based on what I read.
If I disagree with a post, I get angry.
If I want that outfit, I become jealous.
If my house doesn’t look like that, my kids don’t act that way, or my marriage, body, schedule, cooking, _______ doesn’t measure up, I feel discouraged.
So what’s the solution?
The solution is not to abandon the internet. Because even if we stay at home surrounded by nothing and nobody, our hearts are loud enough to cause anger, jealousy, and discouragement all by themselves. Happy thoughts, right?
The solution is to filter everything through the grid of God’s Word.
Everything.
Every blog post. Every instagram pic. Every status update, tweet, and news article. Yeah, even the songs on Pandora.
It’s a lot easier said than done.
It’s a whole lot easier to just use my feelings as my filter. If that makes me happy or loved, I’ll believe it. If it makes me feel sad, depressed, or angry, I’ll stop thinking about it.
The thing is – my feelings are always changing. And so is everything else.
In everything that is read, the foremost thought in a Christian’s mind must be:
“Does this line up with God’s Word?”
“The grass withers, the flower fades,
but the word of our God will stand forever.”
Isaiah 40:8
God’s Word is constant and unchangeable. Use it as your filter.