Think Before You Post

It has taken lots of restraint the last few months to not furiously rant on social media. Lord knows there is much to rant about these days. Unrest in the streets. Social injustice. A deadly virus. A divided nation. Other countries are looking at the United States and asking,

"What the heck is going on over there?"

Because of the Coronavirus, we've been in quarantine for nearly 5 months (which is enough to make anyone a little nutty), businesses are shutting down, and people are up in arms about whether we should be wearing masks and reopening schools and businesses to save our economy.

In the meantime, rapper Kanye West just announced he's running for president and recently made a statement that receiving a vaccination for the deadly Coronavirus (once it's available) is the equivalent of taking the mark of the beast. For all of our non-Bible readers out there, in a nutshell, the mark of the best is a sign in the book of Revelation that identifies those who worship the antichrist. Yeah, we think it's a bit of a stretch too.

All the while, Black Lives Matter (BLM) protests around the nation continue as we watched an African American man, George Floyd, murdered in cold blood by police and we've still not seen justice for Breonna Taylor - an African American woman who was mistakenly shot 8 times in her own home by police officers. The list goes on and on, but we'll refrain from turning this post into yet another rant.

On the contrary, the purpose of this post is to inspire thoughtfulness and responsibility in a time when we desperately need it. No doubt, there have been moments over the last few months when many of us have started losing faith in humanity. We see propaganda swarming around social media daily, creating more buzz with every click of the "share" button.

Some of us feel overwhelmed. We want to maintain our own sanity and well-being by choosing to bow out of the conversation altogether. We shut off the news and hide out in the mountains somewhere. Others feel compelled to speak up and get involved. To each their own. No judgement here; there are pros and cons to both approaches.

For those who are inspired to speak up, this post is for you. God gave you that fire in your spirit for a reason and one of the beautiful things about living in America is that you have the ability to exercise your right to speak. However, we must remember that,

words are powerful and social media is their superhighway reaching thousands, sometimes even millions of people.

Social media has the power to unite and divide. It can spread joy and truth just as easily as it can spread hatred and lies. If we're not careful, we can unintentionally spread misinformation. We can be part of the problem without even realizing it.

So, share carefully. Don't believe everything you read and don't re-share things that you haven't fact checked. Ask yourself,

"Is what I'm about to share going to help our hurt?"

Additionally, ask yourself these questions before hastily clicking that "share" button:

• Does it come from an unrecognized news source?

• When dropping it into the Google search bar, is it troublesome finding an accurate news source to support it?

• Is it written in a way that will immediately put intended recipients on the defense?

• Does it come from a place of anger rather than compassion?

If the answer to any of the above is yes, ask yourself if it is worth sharing. If it is, then ask yourself if there is a way to reposition the content (ensuring it's factual of course!) so that those who read it are inspired to grow from it and question there own perspective rather than defend it. Most importantly, make sure it comes from a place of compassion and not hate. Always. When in doubt, ask yourself,

"What would Jesus do?"

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