SPEAK UP! I WANT to UNDERSTAND YOU

I spend a lot of time on social media, it comes with this and networking is a part of my world. I often see people pour their hearts out while others say it's just social media. It's not just "social media" it's our way of communicating! There was a time where people wrote letters to communicate and I'm sure there were some who said oh those are just letters... Or when the telephone was invented and people had a new way of communicating I'm sure there were people who said oh it's just the telephone. What I'm getting at is that while others brush off technology and new ways of communication others depend on it. Communication is needed in a humans life and in order for us to grow we must communicate. I find it backwards and sometimes silly when people say that they'll never "do social media" because it isn't going anywhere! I find it hard to keep up with those who have no social media connection or at least one outlet because this is the age we live in. Many times we can't touch or see our loved ones on a daily basis so to me it's the same concept as letter writing, emailing etc. While many bash technology I found that it's usually because they're stuck in an era or just not comfortable learning new things. I feel that at least one outlet is healthy and needed to keep up with this ever changing world.

I'm somewhat of a social media geek and I'll try most outlets just to see what's up with it. Started with sites like MySpace, then Facebook and Twitter now there's Instagram and Snapchat. It can be a lot to keep up with I get it! What I want to talk about today is communication, whether it's face to face, through text or phone calls or social media. We have a real issue with communication not just in this country but in this world. We have all these platforms to help us communicate yet we still suck at it. It's a tricky thing because anything outside of face to face can be misunderstood. I'm sure as children we all played telephone and we all know that at the end the phrase or statement was obliterated or destroyed. I spent a good part of my life feeling misunderstood and just feeling like nobody was on my side. 

I never had a healthy communication line with my parents and to be honest neither one is the best communicator. They're both writers like me but verbally we just aren't good at communicating. So I was determined early on to get my point across, when I was angry I'd write my mother letters and as I got older I'd just freely speak my mind. Of course freely speaking my mind resulted in a lot of disciplinary consequences but I wanted to be understood. We spent many years at odds and I don't think I knew of any other way to express myself and I NEEDED to express myself! As for my father we just don't communicate at all, we can sit in a room and be silent for hours.  I was never a disrespectful child or teenager who just talked to people any kind of way, I'm not that type of adult either but I'm very honest and when I'm hurt you're going to know it.  I warn people before they ask for my opinion to be prepared for nothing less than the truth. I feel like as a society we hold back, we hold back on how we feel for the fear that others will be offended. 

I'll never be a LOUD woman, that's not in my nature and I like to almost think of myself as a "quiet storm." I can sit for hours and observe everything and everyone around me without saying a word, I can sit and listen to people and know from the jump they're not about much just basically talk. I can pick up on your insecurities in a crowded room, I can see fear and confusion in somebody's eyes. I never knew that this was a gift, I just assumed that my disdain for the majority of the human race caused me to look at people differently. I'm an introvert who at times has almost been a hermit because sometimes people are TOO MUCH! If I could have any super power it'd be the ability to read minds and it's because I find the way people think and communicate to be so fascinating! I've found that most of the time we are a product of our environment. If you grow up around dysfunction you're bound to cause it until you decide to change it. I was dysfunctional in my thought process, my communication process and I sabatoged some relationships because of my dysfunction. I've never truly known what love or affection from a male is so I kind of just took whatever was given. I had no standards or filter as I like to say. We all have preferences but I just never felt that I deserved what I had on my "list." I don't think many Christians realize the depth of what a walk with Christ truly is, I think many just go by a list of rules, regulations and "churchisms." I look at it as being "re-raised" because everything you thought you knew or were taught has to be eliminated in order to be TOTALLY used by the creator. Yes he created you but because we have free will as humans we were all brought up differently so in my mind God needs to re-raise us. So lemme drive off this communication road for a second...

If you know me you know I despise religion, cliche church mannerisms, churchy phrases and the whole nine yards! I cringe at unbiblical rules and I may be seen as somewhat of a contrary rebel at times. There's been time periods where in my walk I just stopped going to church ( all religious people are now gasping for air) and I'm not advising anyone to do this! It just felt so routine and I started to realize that it wasn't the church I was attending it was me. I was trying to fit in a place, a body where I didn't fit in and I tell people all the time PLEASE go to a church where your heart is aligned with what is being taught and preached! Make sure it's biblical, make sure there's no funny cult like behavior or religious antics that completely leave God out. I chose to be non denominational, I chose to freely just live for Jesus without being bound by opinions or the heaviness of religion. I find is so sad and heartbreaking when I meet Christians who don't know that they're free... When scripture tells us that we are free!  “So if the Son liberates you [makes you free men], then you are really and unquestionably free.”

John 8:36 AMP  now I understand that nobody is free to just do whatever they want without consequences. I'm just learning how to go to God and communicate about what he needs and wants me to do, to actually read and study this word for myself is a privilege that many have been denied in the past and in some countries still are. I think communication ultimately starts with the creator! I mean he created us... So who better than the creator of ALL things to teach us how to communicate. Whether it's social media, phone, text, letters or face to face we have to do better and take a communications course with him so that we can change this worlds off beat thinking process, so that we can understand our brothers and sisters. I'm so tired of cliques and isolation! You can sit in church all day and preach to a group of people who've heard you 10,00 times but what is that changing if nobody new is in that audience? What is that changing when there is a dying, hurting world out here who thinks that "church people" look down on them? Communicate! We need to communicate with this world and not from some "I'm better than you" so come sit with me in my church where you'll be judged and shredded to pieces. We need to first live like Jesus, treat people with respect, not condemn them to hell for how they look, act or even LOVE (now I'm throwing shade, catch it) because frankly I wouldn't even attend church with some peoples approach. Communication is everything so let's be mindful on every platform how we teach, how we approach and how we reach. God is love, love is love and I'll be back soon.- CDJ❤️