If you follow me on Twitter or Instagram then you know that I post a lot of pictures of my dog, Elphie. Alycia and I post so many pictures of her that Alycia created the hashtag #ElphieSelfie.
Some people have accused me of being obsessed with my dog. Others have threatened to unfollow me because I post too many pictures of Elphie. I understand why people would question the number of #ElphieSelfies that I post. In spite of all those questions, though, I’m going to keep posting pictures of my dog.
There are a lot of ugly, difficult and broken things in this world.
Adrian Peterson’s two-year-old son was beaten to death.
There was another shooting, this time in Oklahoma at a Hmong New Year’s celebration.
Disease, malnourishment and poverty still run rampant throughout the world.
When facing all the brokenness in the world sometimes I just want to look at something cute and fluffy. I really am encouraged by pictures of cute animals doing cute things. I know that a picture of a puppy or a kitten can’t mend all the brokenness in the world, but it can remind us of God’s goodness.
I follow at least four Twitter accounts that do nothing but post pictures of puppies, kittens and other animals. If I’m encouraged by cute and fluffy then maybe an #ElphieSelfie will brighten someone else’s day.
There are a lot of ways to encourage people through social media. I’m taking pictures of my dog anyway so it’s easy enough to post them on social media. Jesus says to do to others as we would have them do to us. I love it when people post pictures of animals so I’m going to keep on posting #ElphieSelfies.
How do you like to use social media to encourage people?
Well, that makes me feel a little better about all the pictures I post of Hobbes. 🙂