Think Before You Pin

I love Pinterest. At least once every two weeks, I am whipping up some recipe for Robert that I've found through the popular website (the pizza cupcakes were the biggest hit, though I love the greek yogurt cake). If you aren't on Pinterest, you're definitely missing out. You can find everything from recipes to workout tips to movie quotes to decorating tips to photography to weddings to kids' birthday themes and every single thing in between. It's magical.

Unfortunately, the website makes it so easy to "repin" things, that I think we sometimes fail to think through what we're repinning. I love looking through recipes, getting tips for organizing my house, looking at pictures of places I've visited around the globe, and even motivational quotes for running. There is some amazing stuff out there, all gathered together on this lovely little website for my convenience.

But with the good comes the bad.

Every single day that I'm on Pinterest it seems that my friends are repinning skimpy outfits or girls working out with nearly nothing on or pictures of actors with the captions "mmm!" or "lustworthy" underneath. Every time I see one of these things, I have to double check who has pinned it, because it can't be that person I went to Freed with, or it can't be that member of Christ's body. They wouldn't be doing that--they wouldn't like those things.

But, sometimes we just get in a hurry and we don't think about the negatives. We think that something as harmless as Pinterest can't be affecting our influence. After all, we're simply pinning funny quotes or pictures of actors and TV shows we like. What's the big deal?

Philippians 4:8 says,

"Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy--meditate on these things."

I don't know about you, but when I'm "pinning" things, I'm generally meditating on them. I'm salivating over some dessert, I'm thinking of ways to implement a certain technique in my workout, I'm daydreaming of standing beneath the Eiffel Tower with my best friend. I DON'T want to be meditating on lust, on immodesty, on profanity, and the like. I definitely DON'T want people to think I condone such things. And please, don't get me started on the disrespect we're showing our husbands and future husbands by objectifying men and lusting over them. I would HATE for Robert to be looking through things I've pinned and find a board labeled "mmm!" with pictures of barely clothed, attractive men. What I'd hate MORE than that is finding a file on his computer titled "mmm!" with pictures of attractive women in it. That would make me feel terrible, insecure, unwanted, and just not good enough. Why would I ever want to invoke those same feelings on him? He's my husband! I'm supposed to make him feel safe (Prov. 31:11).

I have a hard time with this--especially on Pinterest where it's so easy to just save it to my board, but I'm doing my best to condition myself to "abhor what is evil; cling to what is good" (Rom. 12:9).

Please, sisters, help me out with this. Let's all take a Pinterest inventory and an inventory of our hearts, and make sure they're reflecting the same things. And if we see something on our boards that God doesn't want in our hearts, let's be willing to change.