By Lois Hewitt

Doom scrolling…it is my newest bad habit.  I scroll social media for hours totally unaware of the time as it passes.  My goal since January was to scroll less but I have not been able to put the phone down.

Until today.  My hope is that today is the final straw. I have been praying for strength to stop.  I find myself scrolling without even realizing when I started.

This morning started out as all my days off do.  Breakfast, dishes, goodbye to Mike and the promise of only looking at social media for a short time.

Two hours later, I realized something so obvious. This activity is very bad for my mental health.

Just today I saw several videos of glorifying bad behavior. Apparently being rude is acceptable as long as it’s funny and gets views.

Lots of videos of people talking about other people, spoken in some unfamiliar code that I have no understanding of.  But I know it’s not good they are saying.

I cannot stand one more video of someone just yelling the same phrase over and over again to some end I don’t know.

Stop trying to “influence” and seduce me into thinking a bigger house or more stuff will make me happy. No one lives like they portray, it’s all a lie meant to make us feel less.

More and more videos show people preaching about Jesus. After watching a few, I felt a pit in my stomach. The words, at first, sounded sweet but then it did not add up.  Contradictions with God’s word were carefully veiled so as to sound Biblical but were, in fact, not. This is the scariest of all.

I started scrolling to watch cat videos and get cooking ideas. I have learned about natural ways to heal, but now that is getting excessively radical.

You look at the plethora of content and so much of it is subversive.  Little lies here and there.  Half truths that spread like an infection.  Outright lies that cause confusion and anxiety.

I got my answer to prayer today.  I realized that if I am to heal, I cannot keep feeding my mind unhealthy things. If only I could only see cat videos, but that’s not how this works.

The more I would hide videos, the more of those types I would see. Even the shortest glimpse of the lies can make a place in one’s brain and fester.

My focus must turn to the places I trust and look for those things that are enriching and fortifying. It’s too easy to jump down a rabbit hole and see things that can’t be unseen or hear something that could get a foothold.

God saw I was really struggling not only with the time wasted but the quality, or lack there of, things I was allowing myself to see.

I must remember there are no qualifications necessary to make a video.  I could make any number about weird things I already think. So me applying value to the words and actions of someone who I do not know, seems completely wrong.

Sharing ideas is a good thing, but I am not sure that is the objective of some. Creating chaos is so much more fun for some people. There’s enough going on in the world today, I don’t need to look for more depression.

My point, in a very long way around, is that truly because someone looks like they know something, it’s not necessarily so.

Pray for discernment. That’s my advice. There are lots of agendas in play and your best interest may not be one of them.  Take care of your mind and your heart.

Be careful what you believe. Heck, you don’t have to even believe me, I’m nobody.  I just want us all to watch what we put in our lives.  Bad begets bad but, luckily, good begets good.

Stay safe out there!