I’m absolutely honored to be here today. This is actually my very first guest post. Can we say rookie?! Rookie I am, but I am quickly learning and falling in love with this little blog world. So here goes.. and I’m sorry if this is longer than the typical “guest post.” I do hope you stay with me.

My name is Heather Hawthorne and I blog over at A Mom Without Facebook. 

I used to be a sports writer for my local paper, here in San Diego, covering everything from the X-Games to high school football, but when motherhood hit, climbing bleachers up to press boxes with a baby bump was just not in the cards. My writing was going to have to take a backseat. 

My amazing husband and I own a family auto repair shop and I also run my own spray tanning business along with being a mommy – the most important hat that I wear.

I started this blog in January of this year when I felt the Lord more than nudge me to put a halt to the biggest time waster in my life. Facebook. Not just for a small fast, but for an entire year. Funny thing was I felt compelled to blog about the journey. I remember putting up my last post on Facebook even asking for advice on what blogsite to use to start. I had never read blogs. Ever. Completely freaked out, because Facebook was part of who I was, I stepped out in faith and started. Ahh… it felt good to write again, I had to admit. So then I attempted to explain myself to my family, friends, and most importantly to my Facebook community where I had well over 900 “friends.” I posted my first blog post on Facebook afraid of what everyone was going to say. I got a mix of responses and then the very next day shut down my personal page. I had no idea where I was going, but trust me, it has been an amazing journey so far.. let me give you a glimpse..

At first I was a tad prideful, I’m not gonna lie. I really didn’t like a lot of things about Facebook, so I posted about them and how I was so happy to rid myself of Facebook. I knew Facebook wasn’t the “devil” but I also had this love/hate relationship when I thought about it. I posted about how much more spare time I had and how I was cooking more meals… bragged about how productive I was being. I quickly felt another tug at my heart that this was not the way I should respond. The Lord was the one that even put this conviction in my heart to start blogging, and if I’m going to listen to His calling, then I’m gonna darn well give Him the credit. So my blog was taking a new turn. As I was on this journey I was going to be writing and giving God the glory. I barely even knew what that meant. Slowly I was beginning to blog more about my faith, and not be afraid to get vulnerable. I went through some trials and some people close to me went through some trials and although not going into explicit detail, I poured out my heart into these posts. God was working on me.

On day 284 of being Facebookless I finally had my “aha! moment” with God. You can read this whole post here, and I encourage you to do so. It has brought me so much clarity. 

This is a bit of what I learned in that aha! moment…

Looking back, it’s funny how I used the word time waster. I think that was my clever way in my mind of shifting the blame of my own lack of self-control and instead, acting as the victim in many ways and saying Facebook was responsible.

For me, this issue with self-control has been long time coming… I have dealt with drinking more than I should, to being addicted to ephedra {diet} pills..among other things. Once I “managed” those issues myself, my lack of self-control showed up in different ways. Facebook being one of them.

I learned that in abstaining from what I felt was my “time waster” was actually more of a self-righteous act of sin management. That may sound harsh and you may be asking… what do I mean exactly? Well, let me give you a few examples that were given to me…

We make these checklists of “dos and don’t” in order to keep our sin at bay. I know the word sin scares some people. Some people don’t like to use the word. I don’t really like it either. But I think that is normal. We are supposed to hate sin. ☺ Sin is the falling short of the glory of God that we all have in our lives. It’s okay to talk about it! 

I realized in my first months of blogging that I did start to grasp the understanding that it wasn’t about Facebook in general, it was about my heart. I knew that, but I still wasn’t sure if I felt a change. The thing is, we can’t make this change our-self.

You can’t free yourself. It will only last a matter of time.

Rules can’t free you.

Practical tactics can’t free you.

Checklists can’t free you.

Methods, techniques, and boundaries can’t free you.

Different circumstances can’t free you.

Wherever you go, there you are.

Only Jesus can. He already died on the cross bearing the burden of our sins. It is finished.

It comes down to this…

I don’t want a life that is just about self improvement.  

I want a life that is about glorifying God because only there will I find true freedom. 

Now that is something to “like”

Right now that’s what I truly feel in my heart. I feel free from the burden of self-control. I feel like I could get back on Facebook and with the Lord at my side I would be a different person. Not sure if I will, but I’ll cross that road when my 365 days are up. ☺

I encourage you to think about things that you spend your most time on…are they becoming idols? Is it really a deeper issue? Check yourself and ask God if there is something He wants to show you… somewhere He wants to do a work in you. It’s worth it. I promise. ♥