
My social media feeds and inbox have been jam packed with “shoulds” recently. Sales I can’t miss out on, resolutions my life needs, “how to” articles that give me easy steps to fix all the things I did wrong over the last decade. Even the unspoken pressure to join in the “best nine” or decade review or 2009 vs. 2019 photos makes me feel like I’m scrambling to keep up.
Whether you love resolutions or stick to your One Word (I’ll share mine on Instagram later), whether you do all the challenges or have decided to take a break from social media, the one thing you should do in 2020?
Quiet the shout of should.
Listening to the “shoulds” the world piles on us will only make us feel like guilty failures. Think about the messages you’ve read or heard over the past week and make a mental check beside the ones that felt like a “should” being piled on your already heavy plate. When we try to keep up, make our lives look like “hers,” and embrace all the things, we’ll feel guilty when we can’t do it all. And then the goals and dreams we thought would happen IF ONLY we did all those things won’t happen and we’ll wonder if we’re a failure.
Trying to be and do all the things scatters our vision and makes us ineffective servants in God’s kingdom. We need focus and clarity. And that means quieting the shouts of should and leaning into the still, small voice of God.
- God will still be there when you give up your resolution in February.
- God will still love you when you ignore all the social media best practices.
- God will not give up on you when you feel like giving up on your dreams.
- God will not make you feel guilty when your plans don’t work out the way you’d hoped.
The one thing you should do in 2020? Whatever draws you closer to God. If your One Word is a reminder to be in the Word daily, that’s amazing. If your resolution creates time for you to make God a priority, chase after it. If social media is a place where you can be a light that proclaims the Gospel, stay in it. Make God the main thing, trust that His plans and His timing are good, and believe that He is not done doing a new thing in your life. He is there, and He loves you.
Psst…something exciting is coming this fall and I can’t wait to share it with you! Make sure you’re connecting with me here and on Instagram so you don’t miss any updates. xoxo