This morning I received one of the most endearing emails from the youth minster that had me come speak to his high school group this past Sunday. It is always nice to get good feedback but what made this even more special was I haven’t been able to get this one particular girl off my mind since that night. In the email he writes:
One girl told her mom, “I just feel so good about myself and I promise to keep myself pure forever!” Seriously…what did you tell these girls???!!! HAHAHAHA!!! That particular girl almost gave her mom a heart attack when she said that she WANTED to go to Mass that day…and she went for the first time in a long time!
THAT is God, not me and I praise Him for it. I’m not sure if this girl is the one that’s been on my mind but I can’t stop thinking about this question she asked: “What if you look up to someone who is older and has like 5000 followers on Instagram and I only have like 500. But she shows pictures where she’s barely wearing anything so it makes me want to do the same so I can get 5000 followers too.”
I’ll be honest, at first I thought she was joking. This was the first group I spoke to that day so she was either a freshman or sophomore. Looking into her big beautiful brown eyes my heart broke when I realized she was serious. Only a few days before my youngest, Seth, made the comment that he ‘had more followers than me’ on Instagram (which is the only social media he is on right now) and I responded “Really? I don’t even know how many I have.” because it really doesn’t matter.
I responded to the young woman with a question, “Do you feel comfortable taking a picture of yourself like the ones this older girl is taking?”
“No,” she replied. “But I’d like to have as many followers as she has.”
“So you put your worth into how many followers you have?” I asked not necessarily as a question but more as a statement.
This is where the message kicked into high gear and my blood boiled in a rage over how our kids worth has now fallen into the hands of social media. I put this out to them: “When did we decide that THEY would say whether or not we were ‘cool’ or ‘worthy’ or ‘likeable’? When did we decide that a number of followers who aren’t really following us decided how important we are? The only relationship that we will ever have that will remain consistent is with God. Because YOU are His beloved. He has created each of us with gifts and talents beyond our understanding but we are ignoring them because we have put our worth into this uselessness. If we walk with God and have a daily communication with Him and do as He calls us to do our gifts will be opened and those that end up ‘following’ us will follow us because of what gifts and talents we offer and not because we’ve shown as much skin as the other 1000 girls on Instagram.”
“Take back your worth and power and fight for yourself. Say I’m worth it! Instead of ‘Am I worth it? YOU ARE HIS BELOVED and that defines your worth.”
There was much more said but that is the gest. I received a second email from the youth minister which read:
“One of the girls went straight to check her facebook and started deleting pictures! (I’m sure more girls did that and I just don’t know about it.”
Praise God!!!! 🙂
This is a battle I’m fighting close to home. Seth had a follower’s mom see one of his pictures that he took of his pocket knife he received in the 2nd grade from Boy Scouts and make a judgment of him. This afternoon I get told by a friend of this girls mom that she wanted me to know about the picture (which I am one of his ‘followers’ so I do see what he puts out there) and it concerned her because of all the other ‘violence’ in schools etc. It was a picture of his tiny pocket knife AND if anyone KNOWS Seth they would know that he is does not in the least fit the description of these emotionally challenged individuals. Regardless I brought it to his attention and told him to stay clear from taking pictures of his pocket knife, air soft and BB guns, etc. Followers judge for all sorts of things. From what you wear (or don’t) to a picture an 12 year old took because he was bored.
Shoot, I deal with it for MYSELF. “How many blog subcribers do you have?” I’m asked because it shows ‘my worth as a blogger’ to publishers or to other bloggers. Ugh it’s awful. For a while I was frantic trying to figure out how in the world do I get more people to take notice of the blog? Then with some great advice from a fellow blogger I came back to my truth which is to simply write my truth and let it unfold as it may. It might not help my cause with advancing in the ‘publishing’ world but at least I remain in control of my worth. 😉
I’m HIS Beloved…everything else will fall into place as He designs.
Oh, one other cool thing happened. My publicist/agent sent me an email with this picture. She QUOTED me (from Day #4) and had her daughter paint it for her office. Isn’t that cool? I have a quote. 🙂
Blessings
Shannon