It's All Too Much

Do you ever get overwhelmed by all of the awesomeness on the internet?

It used to be you would flip through a Good Housekeeping or Parentingmagazine once a month, dog ear the projects you wanted to tackle, and then maybe get around to one of them before the next issue came out. Now we daily browse our beloved bookmarked blogs for the latest crafts, decorating advice, educational materials, spiritual encouragement, and parental vision (to name a few… oh yeah, and marital advice!).

Everyone has something to share, whether it is their latest whole food kick or their super awesome advice for “re-igniting” that flame between you and your husband. If you spend much time on the internet (and specifically around the women blogs, DV included) it can be easy to become overwhelmed by all the things you need to do to be a better you.

On a side note: Have you ever noticed that the man blogs out there are drastically different? You don’t see Albert Mohler talking about the Best Lawn Cutting Technique He Just Figured Out and Why You Should Try It Too, or Tim Challies blogging about his All Natural Hair Gel and Its Positive Effects on the Environment…

Sometimes I think we need to step back and decide what we are going to focus on. Are we going to be women who focus on all the “projects” we want to accomplish in a day or are we going to focus on the Risen Lord and serving his Kingdom for his glory? The two are not always mutually exclusive, but sometimes that list of bookmarked blogs can get in the way of hearing that still small voice of the Holy Spirit meant to refresh and inspire our inner being. We can miss what the Lord himself is calling us to do while browsing through what Simple Mom or Passionate Homemaking (two blogs I LOVE) are encouraging us to do (in five easy steps!).

Blog feeds.

Twitter feeds.

Facebook updates.

Delicious accounts.

Pins…. (Oh the many beautiful pins!)

Sometimes it is all too much.

Sometimes, many times, most times, we need less of the internet and more of the Lord himself influencing our day. Something tells me that if we spent as much time in prayer as we do pinning things and tweeting things, we would be much better homemakers, parents, wives, neighbors, evangelists, and church members. Have you ever compared the amount of time you spend on the internet being inspired with the amount of time you spend on your knees begging the Lord to shape and mold your day? He is the one with the real power to change you, to accomplish his glorious will in your life, to create the servant’s heart you desire, and yet he is the one we most often neglect. We are more often directed by what our favorite blogs put before us than what the Holy Spirit is prompting us to do.

God doesn’t have a pretty home page decorated with delicate flowers and victorian beauties, but unlike another “How To” article he offers soul-satisfying, peace-inducing, life-altering communion that will leave you feeling complete rather than burdened.

The internet is a gift filled with good things. Let us be careful to not choose the good things above the best thing.

“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all.

But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

(Matthew 6:25-32; Matthew 6:33 ESV)

But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?”

And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

(Matthew 22:34-36; Matthew 22:37-39 ESV)

Surely the best homemakers (those with the most lasting spiritual impact on those around them) are those who spend the most time on their knees seeking the Lord’s direction for their homes and not scouring the internet for Five More Steps to a More Peaceful Family Life.

Let’s be those homemakers, women who love the Lord above all else and desire his Spirit to guide and direct our days.

“One of the great uses of Twitter and Facebook will be to prove at the Last Day that prayerlessness was not from lack of time.” (John Piper)