Dash of Sass: Nothing to Prove
I’ve been on a journey with God in this new year about pride. God showing me my own prideful behaviors and using others as mirrors to reveal to me who I no longer want to be. I don’t want to be that person who uses social media as a scratching post for my wounded ego, as a platform for boasting about myself, or as a medium for convincing other people how great or actualized or even “Christian” I am. I don’t want to be the person who searches for constant validation in the faces of strangers. I don’t want to be the person who no longer lives in the moment because I’m too busy bragging about living in the moment to my online friends. I want to stop endlessly proving myself to people. I want to be real…and I want to be me. Just me. Someone asked me the other day, “So what’s your goal, Mandy? To be the next Oprah?” And as much as I love Oprah, the truth is…I don’t want to be the next Oprah or the next anyone. I just want to be me. And I want to rest in the knowledge that just being me is enough. I want to start asking myself before I post something for public consumption: “Is this to glorify God and/or edify others and/or make someone laugh and bring them joy…or is it to glorify myself and boost my ego and prove my value?” Because the truth is, pride stinks. It reeks. It’s off-putting and alienating and divisive. It’s not inclusive. It’s not designed to bring anyone in from the cold, but to make them feel like they are on the outside looking in. And I don’t want to be that person. I don’t want to spend another minute bragging or boasting or proving myself. I just want to BE. I want to tell my stories, free of ego. I want to share my shortcomings AND my successes honestly, and without being defined by either one. This is my prayer this year…to just learn to be ME without all the other junk. I guess I am sharing all this so that anyone else out there tired of the emptiness of pride, too, can join me in this journey of just BEING. God said “Be still and know that I am God”…not “Be still and know that YOU are God.” I want my life to start reflecting that.
Love this!! Very encouraging. You’re awesome Mandy! May God continue to bless you so you can bless others l(like me) with you’re beautiful words. 🙂
Love this!! Thank you!!
Love this! I have been going through this as well and now before I post on Facebook or Twitter, I ask myself “why am I posting this? Is it to brag, get likes, get attention, get comments?” And if so, I just don’t post. And it’s been really nice to just enjoy life and my day and what I’m doing instead of spending time telling everyone else about it
Very transparent and something I can identify with. This ties in perfect and is so timely, thank you.
WOW… THANK YOU for being my mirror. I HATE how my feelings of self-worth are based on how many likes I get on my Facebook posts! Talk about soul searching… thank you for being YOU!
I just love this. You always seem to find a way to write exactly the words I need to hear! =] Thank you for inspiring me to let go and just be, rather than waste my time striving to compete with others and prove myself. Thank you for reminding me that what I am is already enough!
Thank you for this, helps me a lot.
Thank you for being an inspiration to me…a single woman that seeks to live in the center of Gods will. Thank you for being real and transparent. Hugs!
…amen!!!
Beautiful! Thank you!
This IS so much wisdom from above Mandy. I’m in the same space as you. Let’s do it!! Love, Giselle from Miami
Beautifully said!!
I understand…I am there as well. Striving for truth, honesty and wholeness in every area of my life. Amen!
Awesome. ….thamks i needed that….
Thank you for sharing this…and for helping me see my (prideful) reflection.
Beautifully said!!! Seems as though you saw through me.
Guess what – you have kicked my BEING journey into overdrive.
Thanks for a timely post. I deactivated my Facebook for a couple of months, and it was almost weird to come back. I have to practice boundaries an avoid what I term the “Facebook vortex” . Yes, and jus BE. 🙂
-just BE. 🙂
This was a very open and transparent post. You actually wrote what I was feeling. I thank you for your honesty. I have to definitely share this with my circle of friends. It really makes you think about the whole social media aspect of life that we have become enameled with. We have built such a false way of living. Thanks again!
I love this post. Not too long ago I broke up with a guy I really liked. It was a bad break up and I still liked him so much. We had each other on snap chat and I found that I uses that as a tool to post pics of myself looking “good” or having fun or whatever the situation was. I was doing this on order to get attention from other guys and most importantly from him…. i eventually deleted snap chat because I knew that I was using it to as a means to glorify myself to make him jealous. It made me conceited and vain… something I really don’t want to be!
Amen. Thanks Mandy.