I've not always used social media for God's glory. Like others, I've said things I shouldn't, vented when I should have remained silent, and used words to tear down others. I believe, though, that social media can be used for God's glory.

I spoke to someone recently who said she was reluctant to use social media as a personal pulpit.  I am not entirely sure what she meant, but I think she may mean coming across as harsh or condemning. No, we don't want to do that as Christians. I make no apologies for being a Christian, and my social media sites reflect that. I think there are times that honouring God via social media is seen just as frequently in what we don't say than in what we do say.

What I mean by that is the tendency to whine and complain. I know what I mean, because I've been guilty of it.

When I was a young woman, I would write in journals, pages and pages of complaints, injustices, and woes. In the end, I could rip out the pages when I re-read them (as I inevitably did) and thought they were pretty stupid. In this day and age, we have forums where people can listen to our rants. Or at least, we think they're listening. In all likelihood, they're rolling their eyes wishing we would stop complaining. I've done it, and I'm ashamed of it.

I've been thinking a lot lately of Paul's letter to the Philippians, where he tells them to do all things without grumbling (Phil. 2:14-15).  The whole letter is filled with Paul's exhortations to rejoice despite the situation; despite the fact that he maybe poured out as a drink offering; despite the fact that he is in jail. Paul didn't complain. He didn't leave a record of whining for us to look back at 2,000 years later. That's the kind of example I want to follow.

To put it bluntly, when we're constantly complaining, it's a bad testimony. If we're going to use Facebook or Twitter, we ought to use it to declare his excellencies, whether it is a simple "Praise the Lord" as our status, or a link to something really God-honouring and edifying. When every little problem becomes a Facebook status, what are we saying about how much we glory in God's goodness to us? I've been that complaining, murmuring person, and ultimately, it doesn't make me feel any better to vent like that.

We may not use our Facebook or Twitter to proclaim the gospel, but at the very least, let's not use it to discourage others from it.

When I think about mothering and praying for my children, I often think of Hannah (I Sam. 1-2).  She wanted a child.  It grieved her that she could not give her husband one.  She prayed so fervently that the priest Eli believed her to be drunk.  As she prayed, she promised God that if he gave her a child, she would give him back to the Lord.

We know how the story ends.  She does have a child, and she does give him to the Lord at a very tender age, shortly after he was weaned. The prospect of yielding such a young child to the care of the priests is something mothers may struggle with.  I didn't even want to leave my children with babysitters who weren't family!

Yet, Hannah manages to do what she promised, and she leaves Samuel in the care of Eli.  Her prayer in I Samuel 2:2-10 shows the reason why she was able to do it:  she knew who God was.  Confidence in prayer comes from knowing who God is and trusting him.

I'm not praying for young children anymore.  I'm praying for adults.  But my prayers are still the same.  When they were younger, I prayed that they would love God's word, serve Him faithfully, devote their lives to living a life which would reflect God's glory. I still pray for that.  I don't really care about much else other than those things, because I think if those are their priorities, everything else will fall into place for them.

Of course we pray for specific things.  I pray now for the career choices my children make, that they would be vocations where they would bring glory to God.  I pray also for them to find churches where they will be fed God's word.  I continue to pray that they will love the word.  I also pray a little more fervently for the possibility of spouses, because they are in that phase of life.  They are seeing friends marry, and they are making friendships that could lead to that.

The kind of spouses we want for our children are the kind that will cause our children to rise to the call on their lives before God.  I want spouses who are not only Christians; I want them to marry Christians who will challenge them to be the best they can be for God.  Having a spouse with expectations is necessary. I want my children's spouses to expect godly behaviour from them.  If they expect nothing, that is likely what they will get.  

I leave these things in the capable hands of God, and I read Hannah's prayer often. I can trust my children to God's care. Trusting him doesn't mean they will always do what I want them to do, but it means that I trust God's provision for them. Like Hannah, our children, ultimately, are not ours.  When you think about it, they spend the most of their lives not as children under our roof, but as adults on their own.  That's a lot of time to pray for them.  It's a good thing we have a God who is trustworthy.

I'm not sure where I heard about Andreas Köstenberger and Richard Patterson's book Invitation to Biblical Interpretation; perhaps it was The Gospel Coalition.  I had it on my wishlist at Westminster Books, and when I placed an order in the fall, I ordered it.  I'm just now getting around to looking at it.

It is going to be a good read, I believe.  Yes, it's like a textbook, but it deals with one of my favourite topics: bible study.  

I really like how the authors focus more on just the academic aspect of studying Scripture.  The first chapter carries a good reminder:

As seekers of truth and as lovers of God and others, then, we set out to discover revealed truth and to acquire biblical wisdom as one sets out to mine gold and precious stones. Our conviction that God's word is the most precious commodity there is fuels a desire to extract even the last ounce of meaning from the biblical text no matter how much effort or learning it takes to recover it.  In our quest for revealed truth, we will be prepared to pay whatever price it takes to hear God speak to us and through His Word and to proclaim his life-giving message authetically and accuragely to others.

Mining for precious stones; that is what the study of Scripture is. It is hard work, but the jewels discovered are beyond compare.   It is worth the hard work.