The day facebook statuses became prayer updates

*This year for Lent I gave up Facebook and Instagram. I felt it was time to step away for a while and clear my head, and Lent seemed like the perfect opportunity. {I am also doing a daily bible study/meditation that was handed out at church a few weeks ago.} 

The first morning of Lent I drove to HEB, and as soon as I stopped at the first red light I reached for my phone. 

Oh, yeah, I thought. I can't check Facebook. No big deal. I'll just sit here. 

After sitting through a few more boring red lights I made it to HEB and bought my groceries. While I was there I decided to get gas and go through the car wash. I pulled up to the car wash, typed in the code on my gas receipt, and slowly drove my car inside. As I put it in park and the sprayers started spraying I reached for my phone. 

Dang it. I thought. What am I going to do while I sit here?

I ended up reading a few blogs, and I got so caught up in them that I didn't even notice the flashing green light telling me to "exit the car wash". 

As I drove home I started thinking about all the empty moments in my day that had previously been filled by scrolling though my newsfeed. When did I develop this constant need for useless information?

I took the next evening off, and as I was walking out of the hospital I noticed it was still daylight. My next Facebook status immediately popped into my head:

'Leaving work before the sun goes down! I forgot how good this feels :)'

I quickly remembered it was Lent and that I wouldn't be posting this status. Man, I thought, I just want everyone to know how excited I am to be leaving work right now!

Then I realized that here I was wanting to shout to the world how excited I was to be leaving work at a decent hour, and the one I should really be talking to was already listening. 

I paused in that moment and said a quiet prayer, 

thanking God for an evening at home with my husband. 

Facebook Dilema

I've been thinking a lot lately about my facebook account, about if it's really beneficial to me. Sure it's fun to scroll through and see who's doing what, who's dating who, and who "likes" whose post, but is that really a good use of my time? And do I even enjoy it?

How many times a day do I scroll through the news feed and find nothing that interests me?

And let's talk about the "friend" list. Are these people really my friends? Do they really need to see the few pictures that I post or the conversations that I have with my real friends?

But then I think about what I would miss if I deleted this account. If I had no access to a news feed.

Britt's wedding video: LOVED it. And would I have seen it anywhere other than facebook? Maybe. But probably not. And all the adorable pictures of Reese, Andie, Rhys, and all the other precious babies that I only get to see via facebook? I would miss them. And what about Katie and Edward's new baby? Will I even know when it's born?

But maybe if all of these pictures and updates weren't right at my fingertips I would take more time to actually keep in touch. The old fashioned way. Maybe I would make more phone calls, write more e-mails, and schedule more visits. Maybe that's what I need.

Or maybe I'm just overthinking this...