Although I'm living a lifestyle of eating clean and working out, I was not exempt from partaking in a good ol' time on Easter Sunday fellowshipping with good people and good food. I considered the feast my "cheat day". I had candy, cake, mac and cheese, baked chicken, mashed sweet potatoes, rice, broccoli, asparagus, deviled eggs, and then I went in for a second plate!! After I got home, I had planned to digest then get up and go to the gym in a few hours. Of course I felt totally sluggish and ended up not going to the gym at all.
When I got settled in at home, I decided to catch up with my Instagram account. To encourage my followers and show that I am not perfect in this journey of getting fit, I fully admitted that I went IN at dinner and was totally off my diet. I posted two posts that were taken from other accounts to express my sentiments. One posts stated "begs for cheat meal day to come; has cheat meal, "I'm a fat f*&@#ing loser". And the second one was taken from a favorite fitness account that said "I don't care if you ate Charlie's whole g*^d@mn chocolate factory. Don't give up!"
Many of my fitness inspired followers either liked these pics or commented on how they needed to see this or how they felt the same way, etc.
And then there was that one comment. shhhhrrreeeecccchhhh
(imagine the breaks of a car screeching ..lol)
One of my [former] followers commented on the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory post saying something along the lines of "one word to describe you baby...Christian. And now this post...#unfollowing. No offense...I still support you"....something like that. I deleted it so I can't remember it word for word.
The user who posted this is a total stranger whom I've never met before. I thought she was a coworker of my best friend when I allowed her to follow me, but according to my bestie, she has no idea who this woman is. I was taken completely ABACK when I saw her comment!!! Ok I'll admit, I was highly offended!!! I was on the phone with my bestie when I saw it and went OFF!!! I had a few choice words that I wanted to say back to this woman because I felt like she totally judged me off of one post which was a repost and essentially I felt like my walk with God was being questioned.
Although I don't know this woman and I should not have been offended, I was. Mainly because I didn't like the fact that she would chose to completely disassociate with me because of that. My defense was that I didn't make the post or choose to use that language. I just found the overall message to be inspiring in that it encourages us not to give up on our fitness goals only because we had a bad eating day. I've seen the post several times on IG worded differently from other users, but this one just happened to come across my timeline that day and I reposted it. I also read it quickly and wasn't sure if it said godd@&# or GOTd@%#. I just reposted it.
Clearly the word is offensive in that is seen as using the Lord's name in vain. And again, I don't use the word at all or condone others to use it, but one thing I realized is that once I reposted it, it showed that I did condone it. I wanted to hit this user with several scriptures from the Bible especially Romans 3:23 that states all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and also John 8:7 that says he who is without sin, cast the first stone. I also wanted to say some other sarcastic and ungodly things to this person.
After I calmed down, I decided to just delete the post all together. I recently taught a lesson to my students about self-respect. I talked to them about acting in a way that shows they love and respect their self, but also to act in a way that shows others you love and respect yourself. Sometimes we do things that we think is harmless, but someone else may feel like it is highly offensive and will further judge your character because of it. Now of course we can't go around living our lives to be pleasing to others for everything because clearly that is impossible with so many different opinions on ways of living out there. However, I did take this as a lesson to myself that I am a representation of God and with all of my actions and words, I want to draw people to him, not away. So even though the post might not have been a big deal to people who actually matter to me, one was offended and I learned to watch my actions. Although I didn't create the original post, when I reposted it, I became associated with it.
This was a humbling experience and served as a check and balance for me. It showed me that what I teach my students, I need to be remembering that for myself. I talk to them all the time about being careful with what they post on the internet because it's a representation of them. This situation may seem sooooo petty and small, but I looked at the bigger picture. It's true...people come in your life for a reason and season. That user no longer follows me so I won't get anymore feedback from her, but I did learn something from this situation for bigger things to come in my life. There may be an even bigger circumstance/situation that happens in my life where I will need to remember this situation and think twice before I act or say something. There are blessings and lessons in every situation if you are willing to slow and find/see them. :)
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