Intent - or - how God infuses His Spirit on the daily

So I've been thinking of a few questions since I heard Michael Rudzena's talk on the place from which we call our shots. Am I doing things out of a sense deficit or a sense of wholeness? Are the choices and decisions I make because of an overflow of Jesus, life, love, family or sense of general wholeness? Or are they because I'm constantly trying to seek meaning or feel so empty that I'm always looking for something to make me feel whole? Like most of us, my answer would depend on the season or maybe even time of day you asked me. Timing is everything, right?

My husband believes that social media is just a way of trying to impress people. He thinks it's a show and tell of all the prettiest parts of your life, and I tend to agree with him. But with anything, I think intentions play a huge part in this. As a stylist/artist, my brother uses social media to further his brand. I scroll through his pictures and I'm like dang this guy has skillz. I scroll through other feeds and and I think, "Wow, this girl has two best friends - one named Selfie Stick and one named Alcohol." I think my Instagram is mostly just a collaboration of trying to make people laugh or connect. Andy Mineo says, "We own things we don't need to impress people we don't know, then we go broke trying to look rich, I can't do it, I just won't." I struggled with this deeply during my summers in the Hamptons as a nanny. Feelings that played a huge factor into my need for a transition out of "the life" as we nannies like to call it.

I think that we own feelings/buy-ins/beliefs just as much as we own material possessions. Our intentions to impress people or ourselves are just more ways we're going broke. When I feel the need to impress others, I feel mentally/emotionally/spiritually exhausted. 

This morning I took a picture at the gym and was going to post it with some dumb inspirational caption, but I stopped like I usually do and thought - what's my motive for posting this? Is it because I actually want to encourage people or make someone laugh/smile or connect? Is it because I think the color combo on my Nikes is on POINT? (guilty) Or is it because I feel like people look at me and see a girl who could stand to lose a few and I want to show the world that I get up at 5:30 in the morning to workout?

I tested my motives and got a result I didn't really love - I was making a decision out of a deficit. A feeling of insecurity, not of wholeness. I wanted to exude an image of myself so that I could look better than the way people may or may not even see me. I wondered what our Instagram feeds would look like if we were all weighing our motives before we hit "share".

Are we hitting buttons out of deficit, wanting people to think we're fun, hot, and talented? I hope I'm always making decisions in my life with the knowledge that I am blessed beyond measure and want that to overflow into the lives of those around me. What would happen if you asked yourself the same questions?