IS THEIR POST MY PATH?

Years ago I remember the very first time logging into Facebook and being completely captured by this new experience. I remember the excitement in finding friends, choosing my profile picture and who could forget choosing flair for my flair board! Literally laughing out loud that I had flair. Anyway, this new thing was a way to see into so many people lives like we never had before. We didn't have to guess anymore or hear through the grapevine. This was the new truth in everyone homes and private lives. But, after my pin board was full, profile pic carefully chosen and friends adding up quickly we all soon realized the downside of this picture window.

We saw perfection. An unrealistic picture of what we all so called "couldn't have" or "didn't have" or even what we would "never be"...perfect. So after the excitement settled these unrealistic thoughts had crept into my mind. "So and so has it all together", "wow, another vacation?", or here's a good one "look who has broken up or now together!" or even "thank goodness my life isn't crazy like theirs".

I'm sure my Facebook friends have thought some of those things of me and my family. Back in 2012 Brian and I got a divorce. I can only imagine as I so carelessly deleted pictures of him what others thought. I'm sure the ones closest to me thought, this girl is nuts. Which in reality, I was losing it. Big time! Deleting pictures was the lightest of my offenses. I left my family, packed up more than half the house and started a new life thinking the past was really just that...the past.

My life seemed to have slipped completely away from me. By choice, yet almost like I was coerced. I believed my happiness was most important. After all everyone else looked so happy and perfect. I thought for sure leaving would bring me to this so called happiness, the kind everyone else had right? Yet, when I got to this new life it wasn't what I thought. It was filled with more junk than I even thought was possible. Lets just say I deleted Facebook, there was nothing was worth posting. Please do note that social media was not the pin that burst my bubble, but it sure didn't help. My new life was chaos. Top to bottom wrong.

After over three years of chasing this illusion blindly I thought the hole that I dug was mine to live in. I distinctly remember thinking "I'm not happy, but I guess I can survive". See, the enemy isn't a gentleman. He wasn't going to pull me out of trouble to hand me happiness. Just like the Lord wasn't going to take me out of the family we had to give me a chaotic future. The Lord actually had a plan to put my family back together.

This is where we need to recognize that someone else's picture isn't our view or destination. I know there are exceptions, but that most of the time...the Lord has us right where He wants us! We just need to choose what are we going to focus on? The Facebook posts or what God says? The neighbors life or the life that the Lord has asked us to live and walk through in faith?

It was only when I decided to focus on the Lord that I could see my mistakes and that He could rectify them. I could let go of all the junk that I had created and accept His forgiveness. I hit my rock bottom and decided enough was enough, so lets go God, lets do this Your way! His way isn't always filled with easy choices or smooth roads, but it is the best plan possible. He was merciful enough to still love me, bad decisions and all. He in fact loves all of us that much. So much that despite our best efforts in shaking Him, He doesn't stop or leave us.

In the Bible it says that Jesus loves us, just as God the Father loved him. This love was a love that was there all along, I just needed to trust it. Once I could grasp this love, I could let go of any other ideals or images that the past had impressed upon me. I could open the word of God and trust what it said. It was there that that I could build my faith and see in writing what He says about me. That I am His child with a destiny like no one else's. A one of a kind. A beautifully loved child of the King, flaws and all!

Now, I know my pictures on Facebook can look great or like we have it all together occasionally...wink wink. But in reality we are all just people, loved by God and doing the best that we can. And ya know what, that's okay. God can turn any mess into a message. If He can restitch my marriage back together He can repair anything! Keep your eyes on Him and He'll do the rest! Trust that the SHOES He has you wearing and the PATH He has you on is the journey meant just for YOU!

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Written by: Jennifer Steinhorst