I look at 2019 with great hope. The great hope that this year will be the best year in my life so far because I’m believing God that the following years of my life will always be better than the one that came before, by faith. To tell you honestly, the first week of 2019 had been a disappointment. I listed a lot of goals and I have not been working according to my game plan these past few days. I felt lazy at work as it seems I was still not over with the holiday vibe. My devotional life had been inconsistent as I found myself not starting my day with prayer and reading the Bible. I guess that’s why things aren’t happening the way I intended. What I hated most with the things I did this week was the time I spent on social media. It started with website maintenance and online ministry, but then it turned to hours and hours of surfing the net and scouring the different platforms of social media. I started my day checking my Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook accounts. It went on the whole day, and it seemed like I even changed how I do my daily tasks so I can devote more time online. I checked family and friends’ accounts. I wondered what’s up with my cousin’s dog’s pet best friend? I looked at musicians and artists’ pages and thought that there is a lot of stuff I could learn from the artists of the past and present. I went to sports pages and athletes pages because it’s good to be passionate about sports. I went through a lot of social media sites and browsed the weirdest topics the internet could offer. Before I realised it, my iPhone updated me that I spent six hours of my day browsing the Internet on my phone. Six hours of my day!!! You know what? I didn’t even care. I thought that six hours online was time well spent. I had every excuse possible for staying online. The other night, my wife and I were getting ready for bed with our baby. I laid down beside them and watched reviews of James Harden’s (My favourite NBA player) lousy game against the Blazers. I listened to how analysts criticise and demean his accomplishments. I went through the comments page, and I read more criticism and harsh words. I felt sad for James since I was a fan, and I guess I was reminded that there are no pleasing people. No matter how great you are people will always find ways to put you down, especially on social media. It was at that point when I realised that my wife and my baby were playing our usual bedtime games. My baby wore his super awesome sweet smile and laughed his heart out while my wife made funny faces and noises. That scene blew my mind. I was reminded that the best things in my life are happening around me and they are passing me by because I chose to live in this fantasyland called social media which is filled with fake smiles, amped stories and endless negativity. The Bible says: Proverbs 11:29 New International Version (NIV) 29 Whoever brings ruin on their family will inherit only wind, and the fool will be servant to the wise. We should not let any trouble come upon our families, and we have to help them live the life God planned for them. That means we need to set out priorities straight— Parents should focus on raising Godly children in love; children should focus on honouring their parents; wives should focus on submitting to their husbands in grace, and husbands should concentrate on offering their lives to their wives as Christ gave His life for the church. Families need to spend quality time together instead of wasting time on our mobile devices. I pray that my stubborn mind would learn its lesson and that I would live each day doing God’s will in my life. I will not live in fantasyland anymore, after all, my reality is way better.