I didn't plan on having a New Years Resolution.

I'm not shooting down the idea of having goals and aspirations. I just personally didn't want to make any resolutions because there's a certain stigma that follows them. If you make any type of resolution, you'll stay strong in enforcing it for about two weeks, and then it will escape your mind as you reenter your old ways. So, yeah. Basically, I didn't want to walk into (what would most likely be) inevitable failure.

Then, I was scrolling through Instagram a few days after having these thoughts, and it hit me. I thought of a resolution that I wanted to take on. In my heart, it was undeniable that I needed to acknowledge this problem that I was struggling with and actively work to eliminate it.

My resolution?

Stop letting things define me that shouldn't.

A couple of weeks before I decided on this resolution, or rather mindset change, I deleted my Instagram app. I had spent a weekend without any social media interaction, and it really made me feel so much more content. So, I wanted to delete my Instagram app and see how long I could go without it.

And I was fine without it! Sometimes, I would look up Instagram on my laptop (just to see if I missed something huge), but I kept it off of my phone and didn't miss it! Then, I went home for Christmas and decided to put Instagram back on my phone. You know, I thought I should reward myself for making it through the semester and not dying!! It's not like it could be a distraction from my homework, because I didn't have any homework to do! What would it hurt?

A lot more than I thought, that's for sure.

When it comes to myself and Instagram, there can definitely be "too much of a good thing." I'll spend twenty or thirty minutes looking at someone's Instagram account, admiring their photography of beautiful places, amazed by their innumerable cute outfits, jealous of their adventures or just wanting that person's life. And the longer I stare at my screen, the more insufficient I feel.

How is it that a social media site has the power to change my thinking and tell me so many lies? "You're not as pretty as she is." "You're not as talented as that person is." "You don't have as much fun as this person does." "You don't have as many friends as that person does." "You don't get as many likes or comments as she does, so you're obviously not as loved."

But Instagram isn't the only thing that I've let define me.

Sometimes, I let my job define me. I work on the front counter at my job - you know, the place where you actually interact with the customers. Now, for the most part, customers are satisfied. But when a customer isn't pleased with my service or gets mad at me for some reason (even if nothing is my fault), I let that define me. "They didn't smile or say thank you after I took their order, so I must suck at my job." "I've messed up so many orders today. I'm a failure."

Negative thoughts can pile up REAL quick. Before you know it, you'll be buried.

Some of those thoughts might sound extreme, but I can tell you that they aren't too hard to believe when you keep repeating them to yourself, and you close your mind to believing what's actually true.

But what is actually true?

I know that what the Bible says is the truth but, honestly, I forget sometimes. And at the root of my forgetfulness is my lack of diligence and discipline when it comes to making myself read it. If I were to spend endless amounts of time in the Word, how could I forget that it's the truth!?

I need to stop looking at my phone and looking at myself the mirror, and start looking in my Bible.

If I fill my brain up with the truth of what is in the Bible, I'll be able to look into my mirror and, not just see a girl in a bright red uniform and a nametag, but see JESUS, too. I'll look into my phone and see things differently. I'll see what JESUS would see. I won't see people as their Instagram usernames or their bios, but as souls with eternal value. I won't see myself as a failure without hope. I'll see myself as a person who will never be perfect but can do all things through CHRIST who strengthens me.

That's what I want!! I want my thoughts, words, actions—my LIFE—to reflect Christ. I want Him alone to define me.

I pray that you want that for yourself, too.

THE TRUTH:

Genesis 1:27 (NIV)

"So God created mankind in his own image,
in the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them."

Galatians 3:26-27 (NIV)

"So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ."

Colossians 3:2-3 (NIV)

"Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God."

2 Corinthians 5:11-21 (NIV)

"Since, then, we know what it is to fear the Lord, we try to persuade others. What we are is plain to God, and I hope it is also plain to your conscience. We are not trying to commend ourselves to you again, but are giving you an opportunity to take pride in us, so that you can answer those who take pride in what is seen rather than in what is in the heart. If we are 'out of our mind,' as some say, it is for God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you. For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.

So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God."