Ranting

I would much rather read a rave than a rant. I love the posts and re-posts on social media about people doing good deeds for others or for animals. I thoroughly enjoy reading all the great things happening to my friends and family and vicariously sharing in the blessings God has brought into their lives.

It’s the rants, and re-posts of rants containing profanity that I find offensive—especially when posted by friends and family who consider themselves Christians! I understand the need to let off steam, but there are enough expressive words to cover our thoughts and feelings WITHOUT using language which is obscene, profane, or vulgar. Ephesians 5:4 says such talk is not fitting for God’s people.

Sometimes the person who re-posts hasn’t read the post entirely or noticed the source of the original post. I know this for a fact because I have asked close friends, church youth members, and family if they noticed there were offensive words in what they posted—and they hadn’t.

I realize people hear this kind of language all day every day. Even kids on school buses hear it from their fellow passengers. But that doesn’t make it acceptable for those of us who identify ourselves as followers of Jesus. We are called to a higher standard!

“But what does it really hurt?” you might ask. Dr. Roger Barrier, pastor and columnist on Crosswalk.com summed it up well, “The Bible makes it very clear that we should clean up our speech. Why? Because Jesus teaches that unclean words come from a dirty heart. Our light to the world is extinguished and no one sees Jesus in us (Matthew 15:10-12).”

Yes, I know. I am ranting. But social media can be such a great platform for sharing our faith, why do we want to sully our witness with offensive language? There are so many programs like PicMonkey.com, Paint, and MS Picture Manager that we can use to manipulate, crop, adjust lighting, and erase what we don’t want to include. With a little editing we can borrow (with permission, of course) what others post to express ourselves in a tasteful and godly way.

Let's allow our light to shine on the avenue of social media untarnished.

Blessings!

Pam

P.S. I had my third chemotherapy treatment on August 11th. I survived! Should I be wearing "MR YUK" stickers? LOL! Halfway through now! Thanks for your continued prayers--I am leaning on them!
©2015 Pamela D. Williams