Facebook Rebuked

Have you ever been rubbed the wrong way while reading a status update on Twitter or Facebook? I know I have. This week I was the one who rubbed someone else the wrong way by a status I posted and the comments that followed. I won’t go into the situation because I don’t want to make it worse, and in turn stick my foot in my mouth once again, because I’m afraid that I would. Suffice it to say that I was wrong in writing it and sometimes just because we have something to say doesn’t mean we should, especially in the social media world. Smart people always have something to say but wise people know when to say them. I really do want to be wise, it’s a slow process.

So after waking up and checking my email, the first thing I saw was the comment from a friend about my status–Facebook Rebuked. A rather harsh comment (which she apologized for later) but it stung because there was truth in there and I had to take that and evaluate it. I don’t know about you but I don’t like being rebuked, especially in public. Being told I’m wrong rubs me the wrong way…….because I’m prideful. It makes me want to hide and blame someone else. My day was spent feeling very bad about myself and processing with the Lord. And you know what God says about it? Repent; Ask for forgiveness, then move on knowing that all people make mistakes and learn from it. So that’s what I did. I asked for forgiveness (from the Lord and of my friend I offended), removed the post so as to not do more harm and claim God’s forgiveness.

Later that day, on Facebook of course, I read this in a status:

Jacob cheated, Peter had a temper, David had an affair, Noah was a drunk, Jonah ran from God, Paul was a murderer, Gideon was insecure, Miriam was a gossip, Martha was a worrier, Mary Magdalene was a harlot, Thomas was a doubter, Sarah was impatient, Elijah was moody, Moses stuttered, Esau was hairy, Zaccheus was short, Abraham was old, Lazarus was DEAD. God doesn’t call the qualified, He qualifies the Called!

Whew, I can relate to those and it was a reminder that even though I can be a jerk and I make mistakes, choosing the unwise, God can still continue to use me. Throughout that day I read two blog posts about asking for forgiveness and read about passing judgment in the Bible (it happened to be where my daily reading was),  and when I took this picture of my sweet baby’s bum after our time at the beach this weekend I kept thinking about how I would write about being rubbed the wrong way, because clearly he had some things rubbing him the wrong way (this hadn’t even happened yet and I didn’t know I would be the example). No one can tell me that God doesn’t pursue us and lead us to things we need (even if it is in strange ways).
So here are some good life lessons learned this week (again):

• Ask for forgiveness when I need to.
• Reevaluate my status update before I hit send.
• Sometimes I need to be rubbed the “wrong way” so that the Lord can remove some more rough edges in my life.

I have a long way to go, so please dear friends, forgive me.