Be Careful Who (and What) You Follow

It took me awhile to get the hang of it, but once I did, well, the rest is history. I am addicted to Pinterest.

The concept of creating boards and pinning pictures seemed so absurd that I couldn't imagine why anyone would do it. Then one day an invitation popped up in my email. I ignored it at first but after a few days I decided to go back and see what it was about. I was overwhelmed. It was a couple of weeks before I looked at it again and I still couldn't understand the appeal.

http://pinterest.com/singleandsane1/

And then one night I was bored and went back a third time. That's when I was hooked. I've tried very few of the helpful hints that I've pinned and none of the recipes, but I do have my eye on a craft for the near future. I have over 240 craft pins, but I tell myself that I'll get to them someday. At least one is a start.

One of the people I began to follow was a friend and former coworker. She has four young children so I wasn't surprised that she didn't pin very often. Occasionally I would see a series of pins showing adorable girl's rooms in shades of teal pinned to a board with the name of her oldest daughter. I thought she must be preparing to change the room from little-girl-pink to something that would reflect how quickly her daughter is growing up. Sometimes there were pins of party ideas, or fun treats and I would think about a fun mom she is.

After watching these pins for a couple of months, I ran into this friend and asked if she was redecorating her daughter's room. She laughed.  "No, that's not me. My daughter has hijacked my Pinterest board." It turned out I was following a nine-year-old. And if that was not humbling enough, the nine-year-old had more followers than I did, a fact which made that child positively beam with pride when I told her.

It got me thinking about how easy it is to allow substitutes to get in the way of the One we should be following. It can be exercise, or travel, or food. It can be relationships, or politics, or, um, Pinterest. It can be work, or family, or church stuff.  It can absolutely anything (and everything) that keeps our focus off of Christ.

And when I realize just how many things I allow to distract me from Christ, that's humbling, too.

Until next time,
Margaret

"Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and
take up their cross and follow me." ~ Matthew 16:24b (NIV)