Skip to main content

Face Broken Home


   I’ll be the first to tell you I am not the biggest fan of social media in general and Facebook more specifically. I've never taken it too seriously[i] but I can grudgingly admit I see some of its appeal. Facebook is a neat way to connect to old friends and find out about the goings on in people’s lives. Still I wonder if some folks do anything else with their day! Their lives seem to be consumed by it. It may be a tad self-indulgent and a time waste but  is it really doing any harm?

   A recent report shows that Facebook is at the root of a major problem in our country: divorce. A third of all divorce filings in 2011 contained the word "Facebook," according to Divorce Online. And more than 80 percent of U.S. divorce attorneys say social networking in divorce proceedings is on the rise. Three years ago, 20 percent of divorce filings contained the word "Facebook”, by 2011, it had risen to 33 percent, according to the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers[ii]. It seems that the technology has facilitated the breakdown of  marriages. The Facebook mentions in the proceeding were similar: inappropriate messages to "friends" of the opposite sex, and cruel posts or comments between separated spouses. Sometimes, Facebook friends would tattle to one partner in a relationship about bad behavior by the other.

   As with any “thing” Facebook is not the cause of sin (James 1:14-15) but we still need to be wise that we don’t let such things lead us into temptation.  We might not think that the chat with the old flame is going to lead us astray, but it can if we don’t control ourselves. Whether online or off line, spouses must learn how to communicate properly and treat each other with respect, holding each other accountable to their vows. Marriage is to be held in the highest honor (Hebrews 13:4) and no matter how neat a technology may be we can’t let it be used to defile that.  Don’t let Facebook be the thing that makes your marriage “complicated”.





[i] Just look at any of my status’ over the years
[ii] http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/facebook-relationship-status/story?id=16406245
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

I Know All Those Words, But That Sentence Makes No Sense To Me

  Let’s say you travel back in time six hundred years or so.  Luckily, you happen across a fellow that speaks English.  Upon hearing your tale, he describes you as nice, smart, and handsome.  Wouldn’t you feel good?   You shouldn’t.  As Sol Steinmetz in his book, Semantics Antics , explains; Nice originally meant someone who was foolish, ignorant, senseless, or absurd (middle English 1300). Smart for the first 300 years of its use meant causing pain, sharp, cutting, or severe, a sense that survives in the idiom "smart as a whip.” Handsome wasn’t complimentary. When coined around 1425, it just meant easily handled; it didn’t have its current positive connotation until 1590.   You might think he said you were a kind, intelligent, good looking bloke, when in reality he said you were a foolish pain easily dealt with.   Words have an annoying habit of changing meaning over time in the same language and it becomes even more compli...
Post a Comment
Read more

Master Your Self

  In a contest for the toughest president of the United States, it would be hard to go against Theodore Roosevelt.  He was known for his “manly” pursuits hunting big game, climbing the Matterhorn, participating in boxing match while president. (These weren’t play fights, he lost the vision on one eye because of them!)  Once before he was about to give a speech an assassin shot him in the chest.  Roosevelt refused to go to a hospital and insisted on giving his speech, still wearing his blood-soaked shirt!   Teddy might have become tough but he wasn’t born that way.  He was a sickly child that suffered from severe asthma that almost proved fatal.  As was a young boy, doctors discovered that he had a weak heart, and advised him to get a desk job and not strain himself.  He was homeschooled because of his many illnesses and spent most of his time indoors.   But then as a teen his father, whom Teddy Roosevelt revered, told his son, “ ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Until Midnight

    In Acts 20, there is the tragicomic event surrounding a young man by the name of Eutychus. He did what a lot of folks before and after him did, he fell asleep during a sermon. Unfortunately, he was setting in in the third story window at the time. So instead of nodding off and hitting the pew in front of him, he fell to his death. The good news was the apostle Paul was delivering the sermon and had the ability to bring him back.       I don’t know, however, if we can judge Eutychus too harshly. The sermon had gone on till midnight. Paul wouldn’t finish it up till daybreak. That’s a long lesson. I know some folks that might want to jump out of a window if I had a lesson that long, yet these Christians wanted to be there to hear Paul.   Don’t get me wrong, I’m not pushing for all night sermons but I think we might need to adopt these folks' dedication. They knew that Paul was only in town for a limited time only and they were determined to ...
Post a Comment
Read more