It’s the start of week two in my journey to learn how to use technology as a gift from God to be used for His glory. I haven’t done a perfect job so far, not that it’s even possible or that anyone expected me to…except me. I expected me to.
I’ve been thinking about how often we do that, expect change to come quickly and perfectly and feel discouraged when it doesn’t. Often, we give up and stop making progress because we couldn’t meet a bar we set unreasonably high in the first place. And instead of acknowledging the improvements we’ve made, we focus on where we fell short. Some of the thoughts I had over the past week were Why am I even trying to do this? It’s not working. I’m never going to be able to do it.
I had to catch myself and modify my perspective. Yes, I got distracted on social media and wasted time reading some argument between two people I don’t even know. I spent a bunch of time online looking at clothes I don’t need and didn’t plan to buy. I played games on my phone before bed instead of doing a nighttime prayer. But I took social media off of my phone all together, which has reduced distraction. And I don’t reach for my phone as soon as I open my eyes. I’ve been going without looking at my phone or laptop for the first fifteen minutes of the day for a while now, so this past week I upped it to thirty. I didn’t really expect it to make much of a difference, but I was wrong. My mornings have been much more peaceful without bombarding myself with world news, checking email, or scrolling social media to see what I missed while I was asleep.
It’s only been a week, I’ve made progress, and today I’m remembering that I can’t do this all on my own and God doesn’t want me to. He wants me to rely on Him to make me holy in His time. To persevere, to trust Him, to try again. I’m already seeing lessons He wants to teach me in this journey. Lessons in patience, humility, perseverance, trust.
Every moment is new, another chance to offer myself and anything I do to God.
Until next Monday…have a good week!
Catholic Unplugged 