Simple Contemplation....

10 Minute Tuesday: (hosted by faithful chick)

I have to be honest with my blog friends..... My quest for simplicity sometimes comes in conflict with some of my real life daily choices. I really enjoy blogging and spending time on the computer... probably too much. My priorities haven't been right and other things in my life suffer. Why is the computer such a draw for me? I honestly have a love hate relationship with it. I love it because I can find all kinds of wonderful information both for my home and for work (and for activity sheets I will use at Awana's tonight), but some aspects of the internet draw me back into how I felt in high school. The internet and blog world are very similar to high school for me because we are all trying to be popular. I will admit it, I wasn't ever really popular in high school, and now the internet is almost like a second chance! YUCK! I thought I was SOOO over the cliques, the peer pressure, the quest to be noticed! God has revealed that I have some ugly tendencies.... selfish, self centered, hypocritical. All this thinking and soul searching about this topic isn't new for me... God jut brought it up again..... below you will find a post I wrote last fall on my other blog. (why do I have two blogs now? that is another post) I don't think I am alone in this... I have been seeing other posts with the same flavor. I am doing some personal reflection, not criticizing anyone. The bottom line is if I died today, the internet world wouldn't even notice more than a minute, the PEOPLE in my life would feel the loss for a long time. Which relationships do I spend the most time cultivating?? If you can stand to read any more of my thoughts read the entry below....

Blog world vs reality....

Hmmm..... is there a difference in who we are on our blogs vs in real life? As I have been contemplating this whole blog thing and why it is sooooo popular I have come up with many conclusions. (which of course may or may not be correct! LOL) One thing I have decided is that we all CRAVE attention and compliments. In the blog world we can let the world see only what we want them to see! We can post all kinds of cool things, pictures and posts about things we have, done, made, places we have been, etc. We can look awesome on our blog! We don't have to let people see any of the dust, dirty laundry or bad attitudes. We feel great when we get sweet comments, we feel nice when we post sweet comments.

People can "drop by" whenever they want to without interfering with our "real life". In fact in our blog life we want people to "drop by for a visit", we count them with hit counters! Aren't we totally cool when we get a ton of hits? How would we really feel if people were really coming over for a face to face visit? Would suddenly the "realness" of life take over? Would the dirty dishes, toys out, our important schedule, our physical appearance, our attitudes and all the mess of our real life make an actual real relationship difficult? The blog world lets us have the best of both worlds.... we are personally in control of EVERYTHING and we can just live out the life we want others to see. We can receive positive support, we can become popular by counting the number of our hits and we can be a good blog friend by posting nice comments.

Please don't get me wrong, I enjoy blogging. However, what are our true motives? I believe we all crave friendship and positive comments because God created us with a need for fellowship. However, I think that it is possible to become content with blog friendships because they are "easier" than real, in the flesh kinds of friends.... after all you don't have to have a clean house to feel good about a blog friend dropping by.... my site is ALWAYS dust free!!!!! We can interact with our blog friends at our total convenience.... not much personal sacrifice ever required.... a real life friend might need us at an inconvenient time... A time I had other things planned or am tired!!!! So, am I feeding my selfish tendencies with my blog???? Is this just another way I try to exercise control? I have to really ask myself, how would I feel if someone real, in the flesh "dropped by" at this moment? Well, they would see laundry that needs folded, toys out, dishwasher that needs emptied and DUST! Would I give the friend a warm welcome or would I simply be focused on my feelings about my messy house? Oh, why couldn't they have just emailed me?? Couldn't they have just posted on my blog? hmmm.... just some thoughts I am pondering!

Now join me in taking 10 minutes to pray and seek out God's heart in this matter of hospitality and priorities!

It is 5 o'clock.... What is for supper???
To end this daily stress join me at www.simplefamilysupper.com