How-To Tuesday: How to work "The Twitter"

Twitter is so hugely popular, and is actually a great little social media platform.  Who'da thunk that posting short little blurbs would have taken off so much?  I've been on it for a while, but still have so much to learn when it comes to what all the darn symbols mean. Sometimes it looks like someone is speaking gibberish on their posts.  So I've decided to finally learn the lingo, and let you all in on it!  

Before we really get started with all the info, you'll need to set up your account.  It's so simple I'm not even gonna walk you through it.  Just follow the steps and you'll be great!  But if you just can't figure it out, here's a great tutorial on YouTube

Now that your account is all set up, it's time to change the appearance of your profile. You'll get to a page that looks something like this.  Just follow the links on the right to set up your avatar, and change your profile appearance.

Now your all ready to send out your first tweet!

The Jargon (click the term to see Twitter's definitions):

Tweet: The little 140 word message you send out.  

Hash tags: A hash tag will have the # symbol followed by a word.  For example #etsytreasuries might be one. it's a way for twitterers to post things according to a topic.  Popular hash tags, get moved up to "trending topics."

Mentions and Replies: Just like on facebook, you can mention someone in your post by putting the @ symbol in front of their username.  You can also reply to a tweet by doing the same. Twitter keeps up with replies and mentions under the mention tab on your account home page.

ReTweet: Shown in the tweet with an RT in the message.  

Following: Following is pretty straight forward.  It simply means that you choose someone who you'd like to see their tweets!  Don't forget to follow @lillybunns!

To get noticed in Twitter, it's a good idea to follow lots, retweet, and mention lots, and do hash tags on the trending topics.  

I hope that clears up a few things for you.  Twitter can be such a great way to communicate with others, and publicize yourself to the world!

God Moves Monday

Welcome to the first day of my new posting schedule! God Moves Monday is all about the way God is moving in the world, my life, and just about re-focusing on Him.  I may write about something from church or something God has shown me in my quiet time.

One thing that God has really laid on my heart is missions.  No, I'm not talking about international missions, though that certainly is important.  I'm talking about a local mission field.  The one all Christians have.  Your mission field is everyone you come into contact with: your neighbors, the cashier at the grocery store, your family, etc.  We are all called to take the gospel into all the world.  It's sad that we often forget about our local mission field.

Why is my mission field everyone I come into contact with? So glad you asked.  We are to shine Christ everywhere we go.  The Bible tells us to be the light that shines to all the world.  That doesn't leave ANYONE out!  If we walk around with a bad attitude and a frown, then how does that show people that we have joy?  I really wouldn't want Christianity if that means being as unhappy as some who claim to be Christians walk around! We may not share the gospel with every interaction, but we need to show others we are different.

We need to be prepared to give the gospel when the time comes!  There are so many different "tools" one can use to share the gospel with someone.  There's the Roman's Road and countless others.  We need to remember that the goal is not to get someone to just say a prayer, the goal is true repentance.  A few weeks ago our pastor told about a preacher friend of his who said they'd led countless souls to Christ (it was like 30 or more) over the course of the year.  How great! until he said "3 of them even got baptized."  Now, baptism certainly isn't a requirement for salvation, but in my mind, if you truly are repentant of your sins, you'll want to be baptized to show everyone your commitment in Christ.  

Don't rely on your church to be the key to win souls.  I've heard several people say something like "I wish they'd just come to church, then they'd see God."  The reality is that people have aversions to church.  I can't remember the exact statistics but something like 90% of the US population believe in a God, but only 20% of the population go to church, and that doesn't mean it's a good Bible believing church!  Jesus did not sit at the temple and wait for people to come to see the priests so they would believe, he went to where the people were! He went into the streets and their homes.  We need to be helping the homeless and looking for opportunities to serve others so that we might have to opportunity to share the gospel.  Jesus was always serving others.  

We need to humble ourselves.  There's this attitude in the church in general that we are better than everyone else.  I've got news for you people! We are no better than anyone else, we just happened to have had an encounter with the Holy Spirit! If it wasn't for that, we could just as easily be as mixed up in sin as they are!  Being judgmental is perhaps one of the biggest turn offs to Christianity today.  We need to be ready to admit that we are wrong.  No, we don't need to go around showing off our sins, but we do need to be ready to seek forgiveness of those we have wronged, and admit that we are not perfect.  The lost are always looking for us to slip up, but if we are ready to admit when we have, we will be able to show God's grace and mercy to them. 

Lastly, we need to be on our knees.  Prayer is perhaps the most powerful thing we can do as Christians.  We need to pray for God to provide instances for us to share the gospel.  Pray for hearts to be softened to the Gospel, and for the Holy Spirit to move in the lives of the lost around the world.  We also need to pray for revival in the church.  We need to also pray that God keeps our hearts burdened with a heart for missions.  

Celesa

Gotta Get better at this

So I only say that like every few month right? lol I'm SO bad about keeping up with my blog! I'll get inspired, and forget to write it down and then sit to write and can't think of anything remotely interesting to write about.  Not to mention my HOURS of work on the SAHM of Etsy blog.  But those are just excuses, there's really no reason I can't keep up with this blog better!

I'm one of those people who is obsessed with being on the computer.  It doesn't matter what it is, I just feel like I need to be on.  Well, I've been spending more time in the blogosphere reading some really terrific blogs and have come to realize I'm missing something.  That is besides the hundreds of followers.  Nearly everyone of my favorites has a regular posting schedule, so by george, I'm going to too!

So, for now at least, my schedule will be

Monday: God Moves Monday.  Coming out of being in church on Sunday I'll share how God has been working in my life, and things that have come to mind.

Tuesdays: Tutorials! ALL of my Favorites have tutorials on their blogs, and tuesday seems to be the day to do them!

Wednesday: Series.  I'll do a series on a variety of things.  First up, using your camera for some FANTASTIC photos!

Thursday: All about my shop! See the new items and previews of things to come!

Friday: Feature Friday!  All about great shops I've seen, blogs I've visited, and wonderful products I love!

So here's to hoping I can keep up with this! Obviously sickness, and such might just interrupt my regular programming, but I think it's do-able!