Does Social Media Serve Your Marriage?

My husband and I have recently changed our "ways" regarding social media. We have had serious talks about it the last couple months. I know, I know. Why on earth have we been having serious talks about FaceBook??? Haha! Well, in all seriousness, FaceBook has really crept its way into our everyday... maybe more like every-hour lives. Not only is it time consuming it's also emotionally and spiritually consuming especially for a marriage. What do I mean by this? My very wise husband recently asked the question in the midst of one of our very "serious" conversations about FaceBook, "How does FaceBook serve our marriage?" Whew! That's a great question! Let's be real and truthful since this is the True Marriage blog. How often has FaceBook not served our marriages? I don't think I have to paint very many pictures here. Maybe an old crush, fling, boy/girlfriend is your friend on FaceBook and there have been inappropriate conversations or maybe there hasn't but the door being left open leaves you vulnerable to have them. Maybe one of your "friends" consistently posts inappropriate pictures of which you initially saw by accident in a harmless scroll through your Newsfeed but now it's tempting to return to that photo to look a little longer. There are endless scenarios like this that could happen on social media. So let me ask the question again, "How does FaceBook or any social media outlet serve our marriages?" The primary goal of these outlets is to connect, right? For the married person, our first point and priority for connection is our spouse. Everything else must get in line. Do you really need to connect with someone of the opposite sex who isn't your spouse? Connecting changes when you get married as opposed to when you were single. Is your FaceBook, Instagram & Twitter connection prioritized correctly in your life? Do you spend more time, effort and affection staying connected to your "friends" and followers than you do your spouse? It may seem a little out there posing that question but it happens. It happened to me and Rob. Don't get me wrong social media has been a tool for a lot of good in our lives but it's also been a tool used to eat away at the boundaries of our marriages ultimately causing discord in our connection. The enemy is a sly one and the bible says in John 10:10 that his purpose is to steal, kill and destroy. He has purposed to destroy your marriage and he'll use any seemingly small thing like social media to begin to cause small cracks in your marriage. Anyone who's ever had a small roof leak or a small break in their windshield knows if you don't fix it it will turn into a huge and costly problem. So how can social media serve your marriage? It can serve your marriage when you talk as a couple about what's acceptable and not acceptable behavior on social media. You may need to unfriend some folks or you may need to give each other your logins. Whatever works for you! My husband and I recently decided to forego our individual profiles to share our FaceBook and Instagram profiles. This leaves way less opportunity for distractions and divisions and it tells the world of social media that we are a united front. I challenge you to have a "serious" conversation about social media with your spouse and hopefully you both can get on the same "page" (pun intended)! Lots of love, Laura