Tanushree Shetty gives it a go:
I have learned over the years that playing it safe is just an illusion
https://tanushetty.home.blog/2020/04/09/persuasion-the-art-of-knowing-yourself/comment-page-1/#comment-8
Recent Updates Page 8
[vickysventures.wordpress.com] “Stewarding Social Media”
Stewardship. Right off the bat my mind immediately jumps to finances. I think about tithes and budgets and numbers, the very things that bring up a great deal of anxiety within my heart. I want to fight against God’s commandments to be a good steward with my money because in my pride I want to take control. Consequently, when I think of stewardship the hair on the back of my neck stands on end in the same way that my cat bristles when I pet her for too long.
However, the Bible tells us to be stewards of more than just our money. 1 Corinthians 4:1-2 says,
“This is how one should regard us, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. Moreover, it is required of stewards that they be found faithful.”
Similarly, 1 Peter 4:10-11 says,
“As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace: whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God; whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies—in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.”
When I started to learn that I didn’t only need to learn how to be a good steward with my finances, but with all areas of my life my initial reaction was to bristle against the notion. But as I examined my own heart, and learned more about God’s Word, I started
to realize that stewardship is simply an opportunity to glorify God, whether that’s our finances, our time, our relationships, or our words.
So how does this apply to social media? Who would even think that social media is worth considering as something we should steward? I mean, what’s the big deal about posting a picture of your food, or a status about what you’re doing, or sharing a video that you think is funny? I would highly encourage you to read Colossians 3:11-17 and genuinely meditate on how God has called us to use our gifts, but verse 17 sums it up very well: “And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.” Everything. Do everything in the name of Jesus.
For many people, like my parents who travel a great deal, social media is a tool to connect with their various communities and family members from all over the world. Regardless of where they are, or where we are, we can all know that they are renovating their house and that they’re cute in the masks they wear to the grocery store. For others, like stay at home moms, it’s a tool to share tips and tricks on how to teach their kids at home, or to share in the struggles and joys of being a homemaker. And for others, like professional artists or entrepreneurs, it’s a beautiful platform to share their products and insights in their business journey.
Social media is an amazing tool, but even a hammer has the potential to hurt someone.
I am part of the millennial generation who weren’t entirely raised with social media. I remember when Facebook was created, and I remember a time before it. I didn’t get a smartphone until after I graduated from college and could afford it on my own, which also means I didn’t have things like Instagram or Snapchat until I was in my early 20s. I can see how social media pervaded my life, how I have become consumed by it, because I was self-aware enough before I started using it. I’m fortunate that I’m old enough to see how social media has changed the fabric of how we connect with others, and so I can, a little more objectively, adjust how I rely on it. I am by no means perfect, and I often catch myself caring too much about how many likes I get on a post. However, as I have learned the importance of stewardship in my life, I have adopted a few principles to use social media as a tool to build up rather than tear down, which I would like to share with you.
I. Be Intentional
“Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.”
(Philippians 4:8)How often have you opened a social media app to check on something ‘real quick’ only to blink and then realize it’s been 30 minutes and you’ve just been scrolling the whole time and you still haven’t done what you intended to do? Yeah, I’m guilty of that, too. What’s crazy to me is that during that time that we are ‘mindlessly’ scrolling, we are
taking in information. We are absorbing, like the sponges that we are, everything that passes before our eyes. Maybe we don’t react to it all. We definitely don’t retain it all. But it is seeping into our mind, and therefore, also into our hearts (see Psalm 19:14 for some conviction about what we put into our hearts).
This is my nice way of telling myself (and you) that we need to exercise self-discipline. I think self-control is a fruit of the spirit that isn’t spoken about often enough. We like to talk about love, kindness, or peace because those are nice things. They make us feel warm and fuzzy. Self-control is hard. Oh man, it is so hard. Being disciplined takes work, it takes time, it is something we have to actively choose on a daily basis. And frankly, we don’t. We would rather hit snooze than get up right when the alarm goes off, and in the same way we would rather scroll than [insert your most disliked chore here].
So how do we make the change? The only way to break bad habits we have to set good intentions. We have the ability to make a choice. Sure, it’s easy to fall back into patterns, but the beauty of the brain is that it’s moldable. In the same way that we can retrain weak muscles by exercising, we can retrain the brain into good habits.
Recently (as in, within the last couple of years) smart phones have made it possible to set screen time limits, as well as app limits. Parents are familiar with the concept of limiting screen time for their children, but because of the addictive nature of technology, specifically of social media, I think it’s time that we adults start to hold ourselves accountable as well. I know that I want to set a good example for the younger generation, especially for my nieces and nephews who look up to me, and I don’t want them to see me waste away my life on my phone.
But intentionality isn’t limited to how much time we spend on social media, it’s also important to be intentional about what we put on social media. Which brings me to my second point:
II. Cultivate Joy
“Wise words satisfy like a good meal; the right words bring satisfaction. The tongue can bring death or life; those who love to talk will reap the consequences.”
(Proverbs 18:20-21 NLT)Ok, so it’s time for a real talk. Call it a ‘come to Jesus meeting’, if you will. We, as humans, have an uncanny ability to use each other to make ourselves feel better. It’s as old as Adam blaming Eve for giving him the fruit. Our sinful nature leads us to hide in shame, just like Adam and Eve hid in the garden of Eden, and one way that we hide is by putting others down so that our failures aren’t as noticeable. And what we say about people has a great deal of power, whether we are talking about ourselves or others (see Ephesians 4:29 and James 3:1-12 to remember the power of the tongue). It takes intentionality, and I believe the grace of God as well, for us to break free from that habit. That’s why I say we have to cultivate joy. Cultivating something means we have to genuinely consider where we plant our seeds: what soil are we using, which direction is it facing, are we actively taking care of our plants. That’s the intentional part. But we also need God’s grace: the right amount of rain and sun, gentle winds instead of storms, all things that are out of our control.
In the western world I think this is especially difficult. We have an individualistic mindset rather than a community culture. What I mean by that is in the western world we tend to think about and strive for self-promotion. We encourage people to pursue their goals, we tell children that they can be whatever they want to be, and we’re constantly in the ‘pursuit of happiness’. The danger with this mentality is that we forget that we need others to make any of those things happen. If your dream is to become an actor you have to be able to work with other actors to tell a cohesive story, not to mention being willing to take direction. If you want to run a business, you have to work with your management team to make sure tasks are divided evenly and that everyone is working towards the same goal. But the problem with social media is that it’s the one place where you don’t have to work with anyone else. It’s all about you.
So, I ask the same question again, how do we make the change? Instead of making social media about ourselves why don’t we make it about others? What if, every time we posted something, we asked ourselves, how will this affect those who read or see this? Now I will make the disclaimer that your answer will be incredibly subjective. It depends on who your ‘friends’ are on Facebook or Snapchat, or who follows you on Instagram or Twitter. This is where it’s important for you to actively decide what type of tool you want your social media to be. The best way I know how to explain this is to demonstrate it with an example.
III. Be Honest
“Let all that you do be done in love.”
(1 Corinthians 16:14)About a year ago I graduated from my master’s degree program and moved back to the Midwest. When I moved back and started to break out of the routines of academic life it felt like I lost my identity. If I wasn’t a student, if I didn’t have a goal, then who was I? That insecurity began to rear its head in how I used social media. I posted pictures or stories about what I was doing to make myself feel valuable. I tried to maintain the theme of my degrees in order to stay ‘connected’ to the people who had been my peers (my degrees are in Shakespeare, so that’s a hard theme to maintain from day to day). And then I started to notice that I was constantly checking my social media to see how many people reacted to my posts, what their reactions were, and my heart sunk every time I opened and didn’t have any new ‘likes’.
I began to feel convicted to stop posting. God showed me that I was using social media to validate myself rather than turning to Him and finding my identity in Him. I still used social media to see what others were doing, but I also started to follow different people, especially on Instagram, who inspired me. At first, I looked at travel bloggers to see beautiful landscapes, and interior design pages to develop my own personal style. Then a dear friend introduced me to the Enneagram and a few Instagram accounts that she followed. Their pages were filled with honesty, vulnerability, God’s word, and advice.
Even though many of them were using their social media for business purposes, they used their social media as a platform to speak truth, and they did so by being vulnerable.
As I began to process my own emotional and spiritual journey, I realized that’s how I wanted to use my social media, too. I chose my tool. I decided that, for me, social media would be a platform to share what was most important to me: my faith.
It’s important that we are actively choosing how we use this tool, and that we hold ourselves accountable to that choice. You may have seen those memes that compare expectation to reality floating around on the internet. Sometimes they’re funny (especially when it comes to baking failures). But I think there’s a deeper truth lying underneath those comparisons. We use social media to curate an image of ourselves, and when we do it’s easy to try to cover up our flaws and shortcomings. But when we are honest about who we are and where we’re at then we have the opportunity to give God glory because “[His] grace is sufficient for [us], for [His] power is made perfect in weakness.” (2 Corinthians 12:9).
Honesty to you might mean not using a filter when you want to cover up a blemish. It might mean sharing a piece of art that you don’t think is perfect but was something you made while worshiping the Lord. It might mean writing a post about how God has humbled you. Or maybe, honesty to you simply means being honest with yourself and realizing you need to take a step back from social media so that God can be your first focus.
I hope that these few suggestions and stories can help you consider what social media really means to you. Like I said before, I think it’s a beautiful tool, but I pray that we aren’t ignorant about its power. May we choose to use it in a manner that is pleasing to the Lord, not just today, but for all our days.
All Scripture is pulled from the ESV unless otherwise noted.
Hi Vicky 🙂
That’s a lot to read! Was it just as much to write? (LOL 😉 )
Could you do me a favor and tell me what you mean when you refer to “social media” — just a quick definition of the term would help me a lot. Thanks!
🙂 nmw
https://vickysventures.wordpress.com/2020/04/09/stewarding-social-media/comment-page-1/#comment-9
[2020-04-10 10:23 UTC]
[saniasarwat.wordpress.com] “To be who we really are”
A famous writer Paulo Coelho once said, “If you want to achieve something, the whole universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.” There were times when I felt that this statement was written without any research and critical knowledge and what made me think so were the disappointing and miserable situations I came across when I entered intermediate level at the college.
I selected Biology as a typical subject (the youth of our area are respected when they choose Biology or Mathematics for further studies especially at intermediate level) but I could not go with it for more than two months and I had to give up Biology and switch to Arts. I was happy with my decision unless I saw many unsolicited advice and opinions bombarding my neurons.
Barely after a few days, all my friends and relatives started questioning my subject selection with a strength and flow that was no less than water stream bursting out a water-pipe: “Why did you choose Arts?”, “Oh! So it means that you spoiled yourself”, “Are you kidding me, you should not have taken Arts” were the words that took away my peace of mind.
I was mentally unwell and felt sorry for myself. Something inside me cursed me for the decision. I felt as if I have committed the worst and unspeakable mistake of my life. My chest was burning with sorrow as the days passed by. Unable to answer their questions, my hands used to shake while meeting Science students and my mind took me to a place where I felt valueless.
I kept asking my teachers about the future of my subject and their answers cured me for one more day. But again:
“Like an Arab old and blind
some caravan has left behind”
My fear regarding the risk of my subject perpetually remained with me. With a heavy heart, I forced myself move forward. Sometimes, I tried to comfort myself with positive thoughts and kept the examples of my great teachers in mind as an inspiration.
Slowly and gradually, I convinced myself that I should move forward with my decision. My performance was good and I kept working hard. The year passed by but deep down, I was unable to get rid of my fears.
At the end of the year, we entered ‘exam preparation’ part and I kept burning the midnight oil till the examinations were held. After three months the results were announced and I was beside myself with joy to know that I had topped not only the class but the whole district (of humanities group).
It was then when I realized that I was on the right track. My abilities were in Arts and I was better off with Arts than Science. From then on, I was happy with my decision because it was the best decision for me and will always be as it was the decision of my heart which kept me closer to my personal legend. I hope that it would last forever.
It lasted long since I learned the most important lesson of life i.e. to be who I really am. People are so different from each other and no one can ever know other people’s nature to the fullest. Thus, after this experience I started believing myself and do whatever what my heart desires.
Let’s be who we really are and let’s follow our hearts. And remember, when love and hard-work together, success runs after this golden combination.
So what is your verdict now — was Paulo’s statement correct or incorrect?
https://saniasarwat.wordpress.com/2020/04/09/to-be-who-we-really-are/comment-page-1/#comment-1
[2020-04-09 17:17 UTC]
[https://upperperk.wordpress.com] “Staying connected in a disconnected world”
There are few people I know who are more involved in others’ lives the way I am. That is not meant as a slight to others or a pat on the back to me. I use it as information to give credibility to the information I plan to share. As soon as this virus hit, my world of connecting spun out of control. Normally I literally sit with 10 to 12 people a week outside of meetings and my other church and life responsibilities. As a result, I had to take a hard look at what connecting looked like now that I couldn’t connect in the traditional ways. Going into week 3 or 4, I have already lost track, let me share a few things I have learned and am learning.
- Rest is important. As I learned what to do, I have also learned that I too need to take this time of readjustment to do a better job of unplugging, slowing down and learning what stillness before God looks like better. So those of you driven ones like me, read and apply this first.
- Limit your time in the news and news feeds. What does that have to do with being connected? If you are constantly trying to stay connected with all that is available through the various sources of news and information you will literally use all your time in what can easily create additional stress, frustration and confusion. You can also go the other way and watch so much comedic snippets, videos and the like that you have no idea what and who are even alive😊. The challenge is real then to have any time to try to connect to and develop further your relationships with people.
- Be willing to go old school. Pick up your phone, no, not to text, but to call. Yes, I said call. You know where you hit the numbers and talk to a person on the other end? There is nothing quite like hearing a human voice when you can’t talk face to face. There are also free teleconferencing lines that you can use to talk to a group of people. Another practice I have found is writing letters. I am taking time each day to write a couple of letters of encouragement or connectivity. Taking the time to think through who and what you want to write is helpful to process the blessings you have in your life. It’s also a great way to get the kids involved. Pull out the construction paper, crayons and markers and have them write little notes or make pictures for people and mail them off.
- Technology can be connecting. There is tech that is all one sided but there is also interactive tech. Why not use Zoom or WebEx and invest in discipleship, Bible studies, family game nights or other creative things? Seeing a person and hearing them when you can’t be with them is a shadow of the norm but at least it is a shadow. It also grows the longing to be able to be together again.
- Do a drive by. There are ways to stay safe and distanced without taking risks. I have been stopped as I walked on the side of the road, had people talk to me from the sidewalk as we stood in the driveway and even chatted from car to car. There are some of you who would not feel comfortable doing that at all and others that did not even think of that and might like to try it. Above all, follow the safety guidelines set up, but these can be creative ways that you can see each other when you can’t be with each other.
These are just a few things that I have done. Maybe my thoughts will get some of your own going too. The bottom line is this: connectivity is a command not a suggestion by God. So, when you can’t connect the way you want to, why not try some alternative ways until we really can all meet again.
Hello Pastor 🙂
you mention technology — most people do not consider natural language to be a technology, but I do. For example, “connection” is a very important concept to me (and my work) — and it is via this concept (and more broadly, then technology of natural language) that I found your post.
As far as I know, (natural) language is also first and foremost in the Bible. It’s right there in Genesis 1:1 , right?
I wrote this recently:
https://jax.news.blog/2020/04/07/written-dead
Do you have an opinion on it?
Thanks!
🙂 nmw
no comment URL available
[2020-04-09 12:28 UTC]
[accuwebhosting.com] “The Importance of SSL Certificates to Search Engines”
SSL is an abbreviation of Secure Socket Layer while TLS stands for Transport Layer Security. These are the two most often used protocols today. The common factor between them is that they serve as a security layer (individually) between your computer and the server. Every website that begins with HTTPS makes use of SSL/TLS.
Another fancy name for SSL Certificate is Digital Certificate, but its job description is simple – creating a secure connection between your browser and the server SSL certificates come as tiny data files hosted on the server of the website. They are typically encrypted so that the information contained therein about your website isn’t available just to anyone.
Besides establishing a secure link between HTTPS and your site, they provide authentication, which is also essential for a secure connection. Basically, SSL Certificate is tasked with a majority of the security responsibilities taking place between you and the server, including moving your site HTTP to an HTTPS web address. Are you familiar with that tiny padlock at the start of the address in the address bar? That’s the SSL Certificate trying to secure the website. Whenever you see this padlock, know that the information transmitted between you and the server is safe. Every bit of data transmitted is first encrypted through SSL encryption to render it senseless to the prying eyes of intruders.
The biggest worry about browsing the internet is not about unknowingly downloading some malware but rather, someone reading those private details you transmit to the guy on another end. This is where the importance of the SSL Certificate becomes apparent, it will encrypt your information while on transit so that only you and the receiver can read it. And when you add hackers in the mix, the need for encrypting your information becomes even more necessary.
As aforementioned, the SSL Certificate’s primary job is to protect all communications taking place between the server and the client. With an SSL Certificate installed on a website, all information exchanged between the user and the server is encrypted. This means it will protect you from hackers while securing your passwords, your identity, credit card information, and other private information at the same.
Establishing the integrity of a website is just as important as being mindful of what you share on it. You will be shocked by how easily people lose money through phishing attacks. For instance, if someone emailed you a link of fake imitation of your bank’s website, if you are not knowledgeable about phishing, you would more than glad to surrender your banking information to the attacker. However, SSL Certificates tries to help us by flagging such fake sites and keeping us away from trouble before we do anything regrettable.
Before installing an SSL Certificate on your website, you need to complete the verification procedure set by CA (Certificate authority). The authority will eventually verify your identity, organization, among other essential details. Your website will be given an HTTPS address once you’ve been proven to be authentic. Why is this bothersome process even necessary? Well, it is aimed at preventing a faker from creating a website that imitates yours for malicious reasons.
Google made it clear back in 2014 that sites with SSL Certificates would rank higher on organic search results than those without. This was based on the assumption, which is just a fact by the way, that sites without SSL Certificates tend to fail to deliver good visitors experience. However, this doesn’t mean you are certainly assured that your site will rank highly simply because it has an SSL Certificate; other factors like SEO may influence your ranking. Google clarified that sites with SSL Certificates would enjoy benefits that won’t be available to those without the certificate.
By now, every user of the internet knows a thing or two about the precautions that need to be taken while surfing the internet, more so precautions regarding private information. At times, some organizations are reckless enough to lose a lot of customer information to hackers. SSL Certificate serves to provide standard security that can help stop such incidents by encrypting information shared between the user and the server. Every bit of information is essential, mainly if it can be used to uniquely identify an individual (often referred to as personal data).We mentioned that Google is committed to make SSL Certificates mandatory. We also mentioned how these certificates help ensure the safety of internet users. Google sought to improve these measures skipping harmful websites by not displaying them in the search results and warning the users about every such website they try to open them. The same applies to malware prone websites. If Google detects malware on your site, they will blacklist your site on the spot, remove it from the organic search results, and warn internet users about it.
Because it is the most popular search engine on the planet, Google tries to play its leading role tune the ranking of websites and ensure security at the same time. The search engine regularly makes changes to its algorithm to improve the ranking and security factors. There are numerous search engines on the internet, but Google stands out of the park with its ability to effectively rank your website based on security and UX (user design).
Both HTTP and HTTPS are underlying protocols that the World Wide Web uses to define how information is transferred between servers and web browsers. Users are encouraged to switch from HTTP to HTTPS for various reasons. The reason is that the HTTPS protocol is very much like an improved version of HTTP, meaning better security and an array of their nice features that aren’t readily available on its older cousin. There are other considerable differences between the two, all of which are critical to your overall safety on the web. For instance:
All these are an effort to show you the link between three things: your safety, HTTPS/HTTP, and SSL Certificates and why Google pushes webmasters to uphold the utmost security standards for them to rank well on the search engines’ organic search results. Yet many sites continue to flaunt even the most basic standards set by Google. As a result, a typical day sees tons of websites closed.
As a webmaster, you have plenty to dread. If by any chance, Google blacklists your website, it will mean your reputation and sales are broken forever. If you are not operating without an SSL Certificate, you should start to forget about getting any significant traffic on your website. And if you are still lagging in upgrading from HTTP to HTTPS, it means your website isn’t secure at all, hence good customer experience is not assured – that’s one of the sins Google frowns upon and won’t hesitate to deliver punishment.
It doesn’t matter how minimalistic your site is (your excuse could be: Okay guys, I’m just dealing in word content over here, no need for high security – WRONG), as long as you are handling some sensitive data, securing your site with an SSL Certificate is a must.
Both HTTP and HTTPS are underlying protocols that the World Wide Web uses to define how information is transferred between servers and web browsers. Users are encouraged to switch from HTTP to HTTPS for various reasons. The reason is that the HTTPS protocol is very much like an improved version of HTTPS, meaning better security and an array of their nice features that aren’t readily available on its older cousin.
There are other considerable differences between the two, all of which are critical to your overall safety on the web.The biggest difference between HTTP and HTTPS is the SSL Certificate. If your website was based on HTTP but you installed the SSL Certificate, it would effectively start to load on HTTPS. Hence, it won’t be much of a stretch if you said HTTPS is an improved HTTPS. More broadly, we describe HTTPS as a secured improvement of the HTTPS. Now that you know the basic technical information about SSL Certificates, let’s look at main reasons why you need it on your website. There are three primary reasons why having the SSL Certificate on your website is one of the best ideas you will ever make.
You can only hope that the visitor landing on your site and getting greeted with “Not Secure” label is knowledgeable and has an idea why the label would appear there, otherwise, the non-technical visitor will think your site has been hacked or is source of some sort of dangerous malware. This will certainly affect your bounce rate as many visitors will leave immediately as they arrive on your website.
No one wants basic web security measures to negatively affect their brand’s reputation and success. The easiest way of avoiding the needless inconveniences that come with web security measures is to switch from the insecure HTTP to the secure HTTPS. The switch comes with numerous benefits including boosting your rankings on Google and ensuring security on your website. But this doesn’t mean the implementation process will be all easy – switching from HTTP to HTTPS is complex, costly, and often risk-prone. If you look at the benefits it comes with, however, you will be more than willing to do all it takes to have it in place.
Which other search engines (besides Google) do you consider — and for which characteristics do you feel they stand out better than Google? (FYI, I found this blog post using a search engine other than Google’s)
[2020-04-09 11:33 UTC]
Jacks News 