Wednesday SHINE

Today's Reading: Mark 13:24-37

Happy Worship Wednesday, SHINE Girls!

We are so blessed, Sweet Friends. Wow, I'm overcome with a grateful heart even now.

It's just good to welcome the end of the school year and with that the beginning of my favorite season...SUMMER! Thank God for warm weather and ample opportunities to be with our families.

I have a particular friend who is very much like family. Mary and I have been close for years but last Summer she joined my same gym and life has just been even sweeter.

It's nice because we do our cardio while sharing about our faith and our struggles and what God is doing presently. She listens and shares and I do the same.

Our conversations have changed. We now talk about what we are reading daily in our Bibles. We can literally talk for a whole hour about Moses, all the while huffing and puffing it out on the stair master.
Who knew we could have such a "God thing" at our local Y-M-C-A.  ;)

Today, as Mary shared, I could not help but think again how much work the Lord has been doing in her life.  The change in her has been evident and she affirmed this again as she spoke.  

Mary has been really trying to live like the little fish in the picture from Monday. Swimming away from conformity to the world, and swimming towards Jesus and His calling for her life.  

I asked her if she would write about her experience and she glady whipped up a post just for us.  

Be blessed  by her story.


About that...
Mary Balicki


Remember that old famous line you heard as a child.
There is a lot of truth to this, actually. 

I took a break and it has really turned into more of a solid goodbye - after a hearty Facebook birthday last August 6th, I deactivated. I figured I should go out with a bang. ;)

Honestly, I used to think about it on a constant basis, this thing called FB. Imagining my next clever post and what pics would look most snappy on my profile. Sheesh. 

 It was exhausting and I spent way too much time concerning myself with this outlet. Outlet. That's exactly what it was. I would escape my life of what seemed mundane to chat with other adults and get my fix. 

I was conformed to all of my "friends" instead of being transformed in Christ.  Guess what--it worked, in a way. While I was "presenting" my life to others - I was no longer "present" in my own life.

I rarely talked to my friends personally because why would I? I already knew everything they wanted me to know and likewise...I actually heard a friend say to me, "I was going to call you but I just checked your wall instead to see what was going on with y'all." 
Um..ok? Has it really come to that?


The issue was settled when my then 6 year old daughter asked why I wasn't on FB anymore and my 10 year old chimed in - - "because she wants to spend more time with us!"

After that it was easy to never look back. In my absence I've had a lot of TIME and wow, the PEACE has been the best part. Peace and time to be present in my actual life. Time to spend in prayer and peace in God's word. Time to be with my girls and peace with my husband (hello, he hated that his time with me was forfeited because of this other dominant force in my life). 

Although, every once in a blue moon, I just couldn't resist logging on to see what someone was talking about when I heard about a particular post, etc. 

I'd log on and see whatever it was and within about 2.2 seconds be abundantly affirmed in why I left in the first place. 

It's just TMI - - too much information, for me. 

This past week that happened again. A close friend shared that she had posted a pic of herself and me. 

She said it was getting a lot of feedback, so I did the dumbest thing ever and logged in to see what she was talking about...there it was - the photo was harmless but then I started scrolling through the comments and my heart sank. 

One of them was just hitting me the wrong way. I then spent the next hour or so toiling over the questions...what did they mean by that and why. 

Ugh...why is right. Why did I ever do this to myself. Don't I know better...is this the purpose that God has called me to? No, absolutely not. 

We aren't meant to know what the multitudes are thinking and saying...I know that I'm not. God made me to care for others and to feel things deeply. I can't be who God has created me to be and also be so plugged into social media that I spend my days worrying about such needless things.

So, there you have it - we're back to this week's memory verse.
 

This is where God wants me to be – resting in Him, being transformed. 
When I am transformed in Him, I'm not worrying about what others are thinking/saying/doing/wearing/buying/reading. 

I'm just content to be and enjoy this blessed life that He has given to us.
Let's be transformed together, Friends.

Ah, now that's more like it.