Welcome! I’m tempted to dive right in, but I know that unless you’re an INFJ like me, you probably would appreciate getting acquainted first.
I’m Lori. I can’t believe I’ve completed three decades and my oldest of three kiddos has completed one herself. I try to follow Christ. I stumble daily. I’ve been married to my best friend for fourteen lightening-fast years. I work at home as a cook, maid, “nurse”, taxi driver, secretary, teacher, farmer, gardener, event coordinator, and more. I get paid in wet kisses and giggles. We live in what most would consider “the country” even though the nearest full-scale grocery store is only 15 minutes away and we’re close enough to “the city” to have weekly traffic jams on our main road. It’s a blessed and beautiful life, if we can only slow down enough to see it.
This has been on my heart for months, maybe a year or more. I’ve sat on this for quite some time. In our busy, never-slow-down, must-do-it-all culture, will we ever see the beauty and blessings in the here and now? Those that God has placed in our lives…right here, next to us…our children, our spouses, our neighbors, our family, our friends are all taking the brunt of it. We can’t stand to not know what is going on in peoples’ lives we otherwise would have drifted apart from, had it not been for social media. And yet, we’re missing out on what’s going on in the lives of those in our living rooms, on our streets, and in our churches. Don’t misunderstand me…I too, love social media. If it wasn’t for these technologies, like I said, I would have certainly lost touch with many people from my three decades. We’re able to pray for each other and help each other through reaching out on social media. It’s become the new search engine, where we get the reviews and recommendations of our social networks first. I’m by no means saying we get rid of it all together. It can be a very useful tool, and I’ll talk about that more later.
But…has it made us lazy? Or was it something before social media that led up to this? Our generation of 30 somethings is struggling, friend. We are living the most disconnected, connected lives. We’re connected by Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter, LinkdIn, email, text, snapchat, the list goes on. Busying ourselves reading our the tabloids of those in our news feeds. I, on one hand, love this! I’d much rather keep up with the happenings of people I know as opposed to the happenings of celebrities (no offense). But none of that can replace face-to-face, voice-to-voice contact. Meaningful relationships. Deep, confiding, relationships. Relationships that mean something. There’s a lot that goes into this. I feel like we’re opening a can of worms. This is why it’s been on my heart for many months or longer, but not written out. My thoughts go in all directions trying to figure out what we can do. How can we connect? How can we help build community when we’re pulled in so many directions? I may not ever have it all figured out; but I have to try. Peoples’ lives are depending on it. How many people have given up on church because they didn’t connect? They didn’t feel noticed? They didn’t feel accepted? How many people have given up on life because they felt no one cared? Or the day-to-day worries were just too much to carry alone, but our Pinterest-perfect world deterred them from talking to someone about it? How many people struggle every day with burdens too big to be carried alone? How many of us are surrounded by people, yet lonelier than ever?
So come along with me, and together we can learn how to make a difference in each other’s lives, how to truly connect with people around us, and how to live life to the fullest, together. Let’s make things personal.
Love,
P.S. This article and blog may contain affiliate links, which just means that when you click on and purchase through one of those links, you’re helping support our family and my ability to stay at home with my children and write. Thank you so much for stopping by!