I was working when the prophet delivered his Friday address asking members to #GiveThanks. I remember checking my social media during lunch and seeing pictures of everyone’s families with the hashtag #GiveThanks and thinking, “it must be another challenge from the prophet!” And I was right. Anyone on social media saw the difference, people who never post, and people who post all the time were all giving thanks and following the prophet and social media became less toxic.
#GiveThanks was AMAZING… But now what?
What do we do now that this weeklong challenge is over?
Do we go back to normal?
Elder Bednar puts it perfectly when he said:
I pray we will not simply participate in a flash flood that rises swiftly and then recedes just as rapidly. I am not suggesting a one-time glitzy initiative from which we quickly move on to the next task on our lengthy list of gospel things to do. We need not become social media experts or fanatics. And we do not need to spend inordinate amounts of time creating and disseminating elaborate messages.
Imagine the impact we can have as hundreds of thousands and millions of members of the Lord’s restored Church contribute in seemingly small ways to the rising floodwaters. May our many small, individual efforts produce a steady rainfall of righteousness and truth that gradually swells a multitude of streams and rivers—and ultimately becomes a flood that sweeps the earth.
Elder David A. Bednar, Flood the Earth through Social Media
I believe that there are three lessons we can and must learn as individuals and as a people, or the effects of #GiveThanks will fade into memory and not change anything permanently.
1st. Follow the Prophet Exactly!
The first lesson that we as members of the Church should learn from the #GiveThanks campaign comes from my sister’s 70-year-old neighbor; I will call her Sister Smith. Last Saturday night I was at my sister’s house watching the BYU football game when Sister Smith came over to the house. Sister Smith is a saint in every definition of the word and she was asking for help, she knew how to post to Facebook to #GiveThanks and she had done that the day before to follow the prophet, but she said she wanted to post on Instagram too but did not know how to use Instagram, and she had been trying to figure it out with no success. She then asked us for some help. I linked her Instagram and her Facebook together and showed her how to post on Instagram explaining that it will auto-share whatever she posts from Instagram to Facebook, and then I went back to the football game.
The next day in Elders Quorum, a much younger man said that he did not use social media a lot and that he was choosing instead of posting to social media as the prophet said, he was sending text messages as they were more personable. When he said this, the contrasting attitude of not needing to follow the prophet but to do your own thing vs Sister Smith was clear as day. The more I thought about these encounters, the more I realized that Sister Smith probably had 0 followers on Instagram; yet she was seeking ways to be more exactly obedient even if no one would see it.
On Thanksgiving night I was at my sister’s again and we were talking about #GiveThanks, I shared this story with my family and after mentioning no one probably follows her, my brother-in-law retorted, “I follow her and love her posts” and then I realized, I don’t follow her but this has had a lasting impression on me. We never know who we will reach and how we will reach them, but if we honor our covenant duty to be exactly obedient then we will reach them.
**A note about adaption. If you need to adapt the prophets council because you CANNOT do exactly as commanded that is understandable. The Lord is not going to judge you based on what you can’t do. Rather than looking for excuses, let us strive to be like Sister Smith by doing whatever you can to be more exactly obedient.**
Russell M. Nelson
2nd. #GiveThanks was Social Media Missionary Work…AND IT WAS EASY!
The second lesson every member should learn is that social media missionary work is easy! It can be a simple one-sentence post giving thanks for your blessings, or a five-paragraph testimony, or as simple as a picture in front of the temple. There are no requirements as to length, timing, or hashtags that you’ve gotta use to do social media missionary work! Now if you want your social media missionary work to be effective, then follow these three guidelines.
- Be authentic. Everyone can smell a fake and nobody loves it. But more importantly, if you want your post to help others come unto Christ it will require the Spirit of Truth to testify to them and touch their heart. This is impossible if you are embellishing and being fake. So be the real you, warts and all.
- Be consistent. If in the AM you post a toxic post about politics personally attacking others, and then in the PM you post about how thankful you are for the missionaries or the Book of Mormon then you are doing it wrong. You can certainly post about politics and share the gospel online, just always make sure you are a disciple first and then your political affiliation, so that when your two posts are seen side by side, your politics don’t drown out your Jesus.
- You do you! I still see people posting #GiveThanks on my feeds, that is a great idea, but it is not what I feel is best for me. Follow the Spirit and figure out how YOU should share the gospel online. Two years ago I decided I wanted to highlight someone each Monday. I used the hashtag #MotivationalMonday to share how they helped me in life. I highlighted members and non-members alike. Remember that sometimes missionary work is keeping people already in the Church in the boat so to speak. But that is what I felt was right, this year I have not done that. So figure out what YOU will do, and then just do it! And of course, around Christmas and Easter, join in with the Church’s social media campaigns like #LIGHTtheWORLD
3rd. Be a Light.
The world is getting darker and darker as we prepare for the second coming. Anyone on social media can see the nastiness and darkness out there. This should not come as a shock to any of us. We know that as Christ Hastens the work of Salvation before He comes again, Satan is hasten his efforts to thwart it. But Christ has a superweapon, us. We have been taught:
“Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid.
Matt. 5:14–16.
“Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house.
“Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.”
These verses spoken two thousand years ago have never been more applicable than they are to us today. As members of the Church, we have an opportunity to either make it darker or lighter on social media. What you do on social media will determine if we are sharing our light or hiding under a bushel.
Ronald A. Rasband