You sit down for your quiet time with the Lord. You pull out the collection of highlighters, pens, and journal. The smell of coffee sifts into the room from the kitchen and you pour yourself some into your favorite monogrammed cup from Target .

You pray and then go forward with your study. Flipping to your favorite story you flip back and forth between the pages of your Bible, to your journal, and back. You may even pull out the paints if a certain verse sticks out to you.

After vivaciously writing and painting and spending time with God, you sit back. Wow, your Bible looks very pretty, and the words in your journal are aesthetically pleasing. You take the Bible and journal and refill your coffee cup, laying them all down on your white sheets, arranging them in an artistic manner. You snap a few pictures from different angles until you are pleased.

With that, you clean everything up, pour the coffee out (or drink it, hey, more caffeine for you), and edit your photos. After attacking it with VSCO, you upload the photo to Instagram and caption it, “love spending time with God.”

We have all done this, I know I am guilty of always posting Bible photos.

There is nothing wrong with this. However, when the first thing every time you open your Bible, or go to spend time with God, is to make sure everything is pretty for the picture later, there IS a problem.

Our God time is special and private, and Holy. It’s the time when we are sitting next to God, and hearing Him speak to us, whether it be through the Bible or the Holy Spirit. We shouldn’t be worried about our handwriting or if our journals look pretty enough for Instagram.

It’s okay for them to be so messy because we are jotting down everything God is telling us. The corners can be crinkled and crunched with writing, and our Bibles don’t have to be painted to perfection. The words God speaks to us at that moment, are sacred, and precious. We should be taking those words to heart and absorbing them into our actions rather than using it as a simple Instagram caption.

Our time with the Lord is just that, time with the Lord. Meaning He deserves our whole attention.

I’m not saying you should never post a Bible photo on your Instagram or Story. Your faith is part of who you are and you should share that with others. There is nothing wrong with writing long captions with what you have learned and how God is working in your life.

It’s when Instagram photos and aesthetic takes precedence over God, that's when it becomes an issue. When the photo is the main thing you think about instead of hanging out with God and forging a strong relationship with Him.

Nobody is perfect, and this is something I definitely have to work on as well. But I challenge you (and myself) to take a week (or month, year, whatever you prefer), and not post a photo of your Bible or add it to your Story. You can still Bible Journal, and paint in it, just don’t Instagram it.

See how refreshed you will feel after your study time with God, and how your focus is renewed.

Use this time to hear God speak to you.

Jot down your unfiltered thoughts in your journal, ignoring whether it looks pretty or not. After a few weeks, months, years, look back and see all the things God has done for you. Has he answered prayers? Closed doors? Opened windows?

Strive for a relationship with God, rather than Instagram.