In Spring of 2016 I started Grace in His Beauty as an online women’s ministry after I felt a nudge from Jesus to “be BOLD” and share my faith with other women. Each day I would pray and then post on Instagram whatever the Lord had put on my heart to share that day. It was so rewarding hearing, “This is exactly what I needed to hear today.” Almost 4 years later, and I still get excited when I hear those words!
I started noticing in the last year or so, that Instagram has become, (I don’t think this is a surprise to anyone so I’ll just say it point blank.) FAKE. Yep. I said what we all are thinking. So I started watering down what I was saying on my captions because I wanted people to *actually read* what I was sharing, before scrolling on to the next photo. I would pour my heart into a caption that I knew God wanted me to share, but then I would delete it and rewrite it in as few words as possible. The final straw was at the beginning of this year after a drunk driver drove through our house before Christmas and turned our world upside down. After not being online for a month, I posted a long caption sharing a very personal message about what happened. And on that post I got several AUTOMATED comments saying things like, “This is so cool. Great shot.” or “Love this so much.”
I have never shared this on here before, but I felt so angry and frustrated because I knew that more people were FAKE and robots were responding to my post that was so real and raw and vulnerable. I then started feeling like, what is even the point in pouring out my heart if no one cares? Then it hit me like a ton of bricks. “Elizabeth, you are listening to the enemy. He wants you to feel defeated because he knows what you are saying is from God. Stop watering down your messages and let them see God through you.”
So here I am, pouring out my heart once again. Sharing what God has put on my heart to share. I am rededicating Grace in His Beauty to the Lord. I pray that in 2020 (wow! how is it almost 2020?!) I can continue to share all that the Lord has put on my heart to encourage and inspire other women around the world through this blog and Instagram. I pray that my words will lovingly reach the hearts of those who need to hear them and change their lives forever.
Soli Deo Gloria (Glory to God alone)
Elizabeth
Oh Elizabeth, I know exactly what you’re talking about. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve gotten comments that I KNOW are bots or something. There’s one account in particular (and she’s actually a smaller account!) that keeps doing it–I’ve even noticed her exact same comments on other people’s pictures. It drives me crazy! Sure, we can’t (and shouldn’t) share 100% of our lives online with the world, but we should at least be authentic with what we do share. That doesn’t mean we have to share all the messy, ugly parts of our lives. But I think it’s like what you said–we need to share what we feel compelled to share and not a watered down version just to please the masses.
Justine, thank you so much for your comment. I’m so glad I’m not alone in feeling like this. ❤️ I think we should agree to share what we feel we are supposed to share and not worry what anyone says! Hope you have a great week!