jots&memos

Pinterest Lust

I love Pinterest. I think it’s so great for gathering ideas and gaining inspiration.  However, I also become addicted to online social networking sites.  I think it’s easy to begin to covet and lust after earthly possessions and want more and more stuff.  I spend like 2 hours just looking at pictures of clothes, design ideas for my apartment, and hair ideas.  And slowly I’ve been realizing my discontent.  I realized this because I was evaluating my relationship with God and seeing how far I’ve grown in the past year and I noticed my discontent has grown.  I’m not contributing all of this to Pinterest, but it has influenced and fueled my dissatisfaction with my clothes, hair, style, and apartment decor.  

You begin to pin pictures of ideas for decorating your house but soon you find yourself wasting hours looking at photos just wishing you made more money so you could buy or make cooler things for your home.  Soon you have an interior design board that is filled with things that you long for, and lust after.  You slowly grow discontent with the simple things that God has provided for you.  There’s nothing wrong with decorating or updating your apartment.  But it’s when it becomes a focus and a mindset of “I need this” that it becomes a problem.  

Your identity is NOT wrapped up in nor dependent upon your clothes, house, material possessions, recent cool instagram uploads or tumblr blog.      

The Bible is pretty clear about not coveting things. 

Hebrews 13:5a “Keep your life free from the love of money and be content with what you have…”  

For those of you who don’t think you ever covet, here’s a practical up to date definition of the word: “yearn to possess or have something”.  Now looking at that definition I have to be honest with you and with myself and realize that I am guilty of coveting things.  As women especially I think it’s easy to fall into this trap.  And at first you may not think it’s a big deal, but just be aware that it slips into your heart and life gradually. Coveting is simply being discontent with all that you have and wanting more and more. And it’s a sin. 

Now I’m not saying go delete your pinterest account or only spend 15 minutes a week on it.  I do not think that Pinterest is a sin and I don’t think legalism is the answer here. I think that honest heart searching is.  I think the answer is spending time with God and making the Gospel and eternal matters your focus in life. 

Don’t focus on how much you don’t have / Focus on what God has given you and blessed you with

Don’t dwell on how much you need or long to buy / Give to others what you do have and practice being the church

Don’t spend more time on pinterest, facebook, instagram, twitter, tumblr, etc., than you do reading the Bible. 

If you are a disciple of Christ and you genuinely long to follow Him and be more like Him, then focus on the Gospel more than you focus on your discontentment. Start praying for godly contentment. 

1 Timothy 6:6 “Now there is great gain in godliness with contentment” 

discontentment at its ugly root.

Just read an intersting article on gospelcoalition.org.

check it out…

http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/tgc/2012/03/28/the-satanic-ideology-of-photoshop/

Rather than conforming to the fickle standards of beauty, we can worship the God who knew us before we were born, made us fearfully and wonderfully, and called us ‘good.’

I hate being discontent and I have been in several areas of my life recently. this article was great to see the gospel centeredness of discontentment.  i need to remind myself DAILY of the sufficiency of Christ.

in every area,

in every thing.

i will be content and focus on the eternal,

the Gospel + the Kingdom. 

traditions we mindlessly follow

The tradition of the engagement ring is usually done with little rebuttal. Women assume they are getting a diamond and men assume they have to pay an arm and a leg for something so small you can hold it in the palm of your hand.  And for a girl like me, I just could care less about a diamond.  I don’t wear jewelry and if I do it’s cheap and from a thrift store or from the sale racks at urban outfitters.  

I don’t even think that gaudy, chunky shiny diamonds are even beautiful.  I may be in the minority- but I just think it’s silly.

Some people want to get married but have to “wait” till their fiance-to-be has the money for a piece of jewelry.  I think that our Western culture and society has put way too much focus and concern on this and marriages are becoming overwhelmingly materialistic and vain.  

So what happens if you lose the ring or your house burns down and it’s destroyed?  You aren’t loved anymore?  You aren’t as committed anymore?  Your marriage falls apart because your ring no longer sits on your pretty finger?  

I just don’t get it.  I see no value in it. 

I just want to be SO consumed with the real purpose and reasons for marriage in the first place.  I want my marriage and my commitment to my future husband to be based on God’s love and plan for marriage.  I want it to be focused on eternal things, and saturated with the Gospel.  

I don’t want an expensive piece of jewelry to encompass all that my marriage stands for and symbolizes.  Because a piece of jewelry just doesn’t do that for me. I want my marriage to rest and rely on God’s grace and love.  I want others to see Christ in the way my husband loves me and in the way I respect and love him in return.  

I just think that some traditions need to be re-thought and considered.  You decide for yourself if it holds meaning and value for your life.  Don’t do it “just because”.  It wasn’t always like this- this isn’t a moral issue here, it’s preference.  

And I think I’d just rather bypass this $2,000 (or more)  preference.