10 days

For my friends not of the same faith as me, I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, emphasis on Jesus Christ. He is the center of our church. It is HIS church. He was the one who made it possible for us to repent of any sin we've committed and have the opportunity to become more and more like Him and our Heavenly Father. The prophet of our church, President Russell M. Nelson, emphasized this during our most recent General Conference that we hold twice a year in a April and October. He also emphasized that we are not Mormons, nor are we LDS.  When we use either of these titles, we are leaving Christ out of the picture. For us, it hasn't really been on purpose that we've called ourselves "Mormons" and "LDS" but he has asked that we really start calling ourselves members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Any other name is just a nickname. Also, our world-famous choir formerly known as The Mormon Tabernacle Choir has changed it's name for this very reason. They are still the same choir singing the same uplifting and beautiful music, now they are known as The Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square.

He also asked the women, during the General Women's conference portion of Conference weekend to do a 10-day fast from social media. WOW! 10 days? I'll admit, I had to think about that for a minute, then I said to myself that this is our prophet, called by God, inspired by God. He asked the youth of the church to do the same thing, except for only 7 days. I knew I could do it if the youth could do it. Now, remember that this was every person's personal choice. We don't HAVE to do anything the Prophet tells us or asks of us, but since I know he is called by God and he just doesn't say things because he thinks it could be a good idea or he's trying to be mean, I took on the challenge. 10 days! honestly, I wasn't sure at all how I would feel or what would happen. And truly my social media is Facebook. Sometimes I check Instagram, but that's it. Here's how it went:

Day1: deleted app from my homepage and logged out of Facebook. Did not really miss it at all but did notice my habitual turning on my phone and getting ready to click on the app.

Day 2: Not missing it..at all!

Day 3: Decided to actually log back into Facebook and just check on our neighborhood FB page and the church ward Facebook.  There are needs that people post about on those two pages on a regular basis, so I know myself and knew that I would feel terrible if I didn't check those pages AT ALL and missed a need that I could have helped with and missed an opportunity to serve. And, lo and behold there were people who had needs and had posted on those pages. I'm glad I was able to see those.

Days 4-10: Really and truly, I didn't miss it much. Nothing miraculous happened to me, but I did find joy and pride in following our prophet's counsel. And I totally did not miss the nasty political posts, arguments, and snotty comments people tend to make on Facebook. It was refreshing. Naturally, I did want to get on and scroll mindlessly a few times like when I was waiting for C to pick her up from school, and I did catch a friend or two whose posts I commented on while checking the neighborhood page. BUT, I limited myself to just a few minutes each day and it's been great. A mom in one of my FB groups said she's actually considering doing this "fast" every Sunday. I like her idea and may do that, too.

Now, I've tried getting some pics to post here since I wasn't posting much on Facebook, but they aren't loading right now. Check back for pics of P stealing chocolate from our family party s'mores tray, C & E holding hands in church, and C getting braces today! Yup, braces. UGH! We're into that phase of life!

If you haven't already, please consider a social media fast or a limited fast if you have a business that is heavily reliant on social media.

-Me