Lessons from Cyberspace

Social media is teaching me a few things.

1. Spelling and grammer lessons. Even as I write this I am re-writing and checking how I spell words. I edit as I write because I want to present my best self to others.

2. Internet Etiquette. Do I emphasize with all capital letters? will I offend with my tone? am I writing out of anger? do I write and then delete rather than send? All very important questions to ask in maintaining relationships on the world wide web.

3. Being succinct. When I am on Twitter I am reminded of how important being clear and brief is. I enjoy this because it is an exercise in self-restraint with my words.

4. Old relational patterns die hard. This is a difficult one for me. For example, today I am experiencing an old habit of feeling ignored....a very powerful experience from my childhood. It is a negative experience from my childhood and therefore, I feel disappointed. I struggle with disappointment. It makes me sad. I remember my place in the family and the best way to hurt me is to ignore me. Perhaps I'm drawn to social media sites because I want to be known by others. To want to be known is to risk being ignored or worse, rejected. Seems like a two-edged sword. All the more reason to watch how I present myself in cyberspace.

As I write this I'm reminded of the mission statement of Classical Conversations: "to know God and to make Him known." That's the mission of the Christian life, isn't it? Soli Deo Gloria. Perhaps I need a mission statement for my social media relationships. To glorify God. Is my speech building up others? Am I presenting Christ through my words (which would be the deeds of internet relationships)? Am I fleeing temptation to glorify myself?

I know one thing after writing this. I am thankful that God doesn't ignore me. No relationship I have, human or cyber, needs to substitute for what I have through Jesus.

A PBandJ Life

Peanut Butter and Jelly. Kind of a regular, bland sandwich. I was not raised on PB and Js. Most days, we ate summer sausage on wheat bread. I enjoyed an occasional PB and J, but wasn't thrilled with a diet of PB and J. Well, early this week I declared to the kids that we are going to have PB and J once a week. Historically, my lunches have been lackluster (I think that is one word). I get in a rut and when I need to prepare lunch every day I get overwhelmed by the monotony. More specifically, the rut comes from my need to have variety in our lunches. That's kind of crazy: the rut of variety. I guess when I prepare lunches I'm looking for the 'wow' factor. I don't know why, it's just lunch!


Back to PB and Js. As I was making them for our weekly quota, I was thinking how beautifully simple they were to make. Jelly is sweet and goes very well with the nuttiness of peanut butter. I use wheat bread and this day the loaf was new, so the bread hadn't begun to dry out. I was looking at these beautiful sandwiches and thought how my life ought to resemble these sandwiches. A little bit of sweet spread smoothly along with the salty and savory. Nothing complicated. PB and Js are not complicated, yet they are complex in what they offer: sweet, savory, and satisfying.


The saying goes, "variety is the spice of life." Who ever said that must have forgotten about peanut butter and jelly. Variety in harmony with uniformity. PB and J can have variety...change the jelly with honey or banana. Change the peanut butter for chunky or natural. Change the bread with crusty french. Add chips or fruit....the combinations are endless, but the sandwich is the same.

I don't know where I am going with this thought, but because of PB and J I am reminded that my regular life of taking care of my husband, children and home is a good life. Full of variety in harmony with uniformity. The same yet different everyday. Just like PB and J.