When Justin and I were young and foolish we broke up a few times. Prior to starting this post I was searching my brain trying to recall exactly why we "took a break" to begin with. I really can't remember. Maybe some of my university roommates could tell you, as I'm sure they absorbed all the tears and supplied the ice cream. All I can remember is that I'm fairly certain we used the "well, maybe it's just time we took a break then" line to hurt the other person. I know that it was the easy way out.
Taking a break and walking away was easier than facing whatever problem was plaguing our relationship at the time. Sure there were nights of wallowing, days of anger, and a general sadness, but overall, those were easy things to experience. Easy in the sense that all I had to do was cry the tears, slam the doors, and be a grump. Now, Justin was my only serious boyfriend. So I have never experienced a "true" break up where the differences are irreconcilable and the hurt is deep. So if you are reading this and thinking that it is easy for me to say that break ups are easy, you're right. They were "easy" for me. I am not trying to offend anyone.
Facing your problems and working to reach a solution is hard. Who wants to do that? We are selfish people by nature and want everything our own way. By God's grace Justin and I were (obviously) able to work past our problems and we are both thankful that none of those silly breaks ever became permanent.
So why I am blogging about my dating relationship with Justin when I started this post about facebook?
Well, lately Facebook has really been "bugging me". Status updates, Shares, Pictures posted, etc, have been rubbing me the wrong way. Without getting into detail, I am trying to work through some stuff in my own mind, and all this facebook stuff was really cluttering it up. So I took the easy way out and said "well, I guess it's time we took a break then".
And don't misunderstand. Facebook is not important. It does not compare to relationships.
But after my break started, I realized that by walking away from the problems, I was also walking away from all the great things it has to offer.
Updates about a very special little boy in our congregation. Pregnancy and birth announcements. Birthday reminders. Pictures of my far away nephew. Information about school functions. Recipes containing loads of chocolate!!!
There are too many good things about facebook that make the bad things seem small and unimportant. And remember that thing I said earlier about facing your problems? Maybe I need to take my own advice and just fix what is broken instead of just taking a break.
