It’s My 10 Years Anniversary

If you’re on Facebook or if, over the last few weeks, you watched the news about its co-founder and CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, you'll be amused that my “word of the day” is “Facebook” (FB). FB is a popular free social networking website that allows registered users to create profiles, upload photos and video, send messages and keep in touch with friends and family.

These little photos popped up yesterday because 10 years ago on April 16th, 2008, I became a Facebook user. It was the newest and best tool to connect with friends and family that I hadn’t seen or heard from in years. Then I found it to be painfully ridiculous as I would read posts where people were complaining about their deadbeat husbands or their high energy children or their dog who had left their home in a shambles or were singing that “Somebody Done Me Wrong” song. I didn’t even want to check my page, so I went AWOL with FB.

Then fast forward two years, 2010, when we received my husband’s medical diagnosis of Stage 4 Kidney Cancer. We had been the ones who encouraged and prayed with many people who had serious illnesses. Now, we had to practice what we had preached “Trust God. Live with expectancy of something good getting ready to happen. Throw your hands up in the air and enjoy the ride.” This is when FB became a platform for me to share our faith journey, and in doing so, made sure we were living out what we believed in our hearts...."Nothing is impossible with God" so we expressed optimism, hope, and faith, even though it was the toughest battle we had ever faced in our lives.

Living life out loud on Facebook became a gift to me. I found sweet peace in writing. FB became a place of solace because it connected me to thousands of friends and family members. I needed that connection. I wrote about our faith journey -- conquering and winning through it all -- even his graduation to heaven and to my new world as a widow became a win.

Here's what I know for sure. All those things that seemed so important before, soon became so trivial. My priorities shifted to making moments count more than ever before. Now I know the stuff of life are those everyday precious moments that matter most. Now when I hear people complain about FB and other social media posts being the outlet for people to get depressed, I think “compared to what?” I loved the post of a friend who feels like I do about social media. Here are words she posted a few weeks ago:

“Before social media -- it was the radio and television that made people aware of war, communist threats, potential nuclear meltdown, race wars, starvation, political unrest and maybe one little feel good human interest story on the side. Pretty easy to feel good about yourself when the world is going to hell in a hand basket, right?! Enter the social media age. It is a constant presence in the lives of billions of people across the globe. Facebook alone boasts of nearly 1.8 billion users. A vast majority of people post the “highlight reel” of their lives. They post their cute dogs, their adorable babies, their sexy spouses, sunny vacations and wonderfully decorated living spaces. And it depresses some people? Really? 🛑Not me. I gravitate towards time on social media because I love to see the “happy” in people’s lives. I love their cute babies and dogs, their amazing spouses and homes, and especially those vacations. In fact, if you are a Debbie Downer or a continual Negative Nancy, you will find I have quietly unfriended, unfollowed or hidden your posts. 🙀 I choose to spend my time engaging with positive, uplifting, encouraging post-ers and I look forward to my nightly social media time to check in on the “wonderful” of people’s lives. (No, I don’t watch the news.) For me, posting a selfie that I feel good about is my way of staying positive about my self-image and saying “I think I like myself today.” Can we all please do a little more of that?! " 😘

So, happy 10 year FB anniversary to me. I daily give God thanks for the privilege of having friends like YOU who indulge me as I proclaim God’s good news in my FB posts. I sincerely believe God has me on assignment each day for these 6:00 am posts. Maybe FB annoys you when you see some of the shenanigans of people and some of the outrageous things they say. On the other hand, like me, maybe God is calling you to be a good news "bearer" that sees FB as a mission field where you can share God's love to a world that needs it so much. Maybe it's your light that will turn off the darkness in their world. So shine, Baby, shine!

"Then He said to them, "Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation." (Mark 16:15) Thanks, FB, for helping to facilitate 10 years of spreading that "good news". I love living in this glass home where others can see my heart for God and His love for all of my FB friends and family AND me!

Inspired and Blessed Beyond Description

Day 216 of Photo Inspirations -- Inspired and Blessed Beyond Description
Please indulge me for just a couple more days of these grandkids photo inspirations.  I was inspired in so many ways in this day.

Got up early to catch the 8 am to 9 am opportunity to buy reduced priced Tulsa Zoo tickets which included the Jurassic Park exhibit and unlimited train and carousel rides.  It started out nice and cool and then the sun was like a heat lamp -- one of these photos shows Alexia with an ice pack on her head to cool off while we watched the sea lions.  Thankfully, there are plenty of buildings to walk through to cool off.

As always the baboons showed off their rare talents as they picked at each other's bottoms. ;-) And we saw two birds having a love fest -- Lexi's remarks?  "Well, there you go, the circle of life happening right in front of us!"  LOL! The more inquisitive we were, the more we found out that the Tulsa Zoo rescues many animals.  In fact, we saw two beautiful bald eagles that were not in captivity and wondered why they weren't flying away.

We asked one of the Zoo employees and he said they had been wounded and could no longer fly.  Then we saw the sea lion show and found out they, too, had been wounded and if they had not rescued them, they would have been killed by predators.

We loved that these beautiful animals were protected and now live in a safe environment and are bringing much joy to those of us who see them.

My thoughts as we walked through the zoo and so many various species of animals -- tall, little, colored, speckled, one-foot standers, crawlers, climbers, jumpers.....and all of them created by our awesome God.  What an imagination he had!!!!

Alexia wanted to go to the top floors of Citiplex Towers (formerly, City of Faith) to take photos. We headed that way, while listening to beautiful Christian music on KXOJ.  The kids had me turn the channel up louder so they could hear one of their favorite songs, and then I realized "we're heading to Citiplex Towers and that's where KXOJ broadcasts from".

So now we were on a photo inspiration beyond what we originally planned.  Going up to the 55th floor, there was KXOJ and a sweet receptionist named Debbie gave us a grand tour -- showing us the broadcast studio.

Now we could put images in our mind where those DJ's and music are broadcasting from.  Bryson was amazed that "those guys" actually get paid for doing something so fun.

Then it was back to Great Granny's for a special time with little cousin, Anna, and Great Granny surprised the kids with her BEST-IN-THE-WORLD chocolate cake.  Seriously, there is no one that can hold a candle to her cake -- though we've tried.  Bryson said, "No one, except Jesus, can make a cake as good as Granny!'  ;-)

We ended our day with more fishing, swimming, pickleball, with a finale of a few left-over fireworks on the street, and then watching a sweet movie called "Home" (a must-see for families -- so good, with such a good message).

Call me a photo-taking fanatic and I'll agree. I'll continue to be enjoying these days for many years to come because of these photos and the memories we captured with them.  Thank you Facebook.  Thank you Mark Zuckerberg for giving me such a beautiful place and space to archive my memories!  Thank you my FB friends for letting me celebrate life in its sweetest ways.