How many times do we check our Facebook profiles, twitter accounts, and instagram posts a day? We do this constantly whether absently mindedly or highly engaged and we act like Demi Lovato every time we open twitter to see we've gotten another retweet.

Without realizing it, out minds immediately notice how many people agree with our Facebook posts, how many likes we got on that selfie, and how many people retweeted that spunky tweet? Do people like us? Are we well received? Are we worthy?

There is so much pressure for our generation to only share our successes, to post only sliming photos doing incredibly interesting things. And just when we think we’ve done something worth hundreds of likes, there is always someone posting about how they are doing bigger or better things. We immediately measure how much our success matters in terms of likes. This is dangerous to our self-esteem, it’s poisonous to our minds, and it causes us to find our worth in something other than Christ.

We don’t have a Flawbook to post all about our mess ups. We don’t have an Instafail to share pictures of our failing grades, midweek meltdowns, or family fails. But we do have a Bible full of Flawbooks and Instafails. Can you imagine what Saul’s twitter would’ve looked like? Constant streams of curse words, racial slurs, and blasts against Christians. Can you imagine the amount of backlash he would’ve then received after finding Christ? Or imagine Jonah posting a selfie of him in the stomach of a whale, being taught a lesson by the creator of the universe.

We are all guilty of spending too much time on social media but at what point does it become more than a distraction; when did we become a generation that placed such a high value on what people think of our internet lives?

I’m not interested in this any longer.

I want to post pictures because I find them beautiful. I want to write statuses about real life updates, asking for prayer and encouragement in the bad times as well as the successes, and I want to tweet sarcastic puns because occasionally I think I have something worth saying.

This is an issue that is so engrained into your subconscious, we don't necessarily realize we're doing it. These are the hardest habits to break. But next time you get hung up on not feeling pretty because you only got a few likes on your selfie, or you don't feel like people find you funny because no one retweeted your tweet, remember how beautiful Christ finds you and how much he wants to hear what you have to say.

You are worth more than a few likes, retweets, and followers. You are a child of the King. You are worth more than gold.