Pros and Cons of Social Media – A Short Essay

How Social Media Affects Young People

   Social media has many pros and cons. It can be used for both good and bad purposes. Here are some things to consider if you are considering getting social media

   Social media can be a big time-waster. It’s easy to accidentally spend much more time than planned just scrolling through friend’s posts and stories online. You sit down to relax for a few minutes, and before you know it, half an hour or more has passed! Not only does this waste a lot of valuable time, it also leads to depression. There are some times when it’s ok to spend some extra time online, but most of the time we should be very mindful of the time we spend on social media. If it is a struggle for you, it may help to put offending apps on a timer, so that they automatically close down after a certain amount of time. 

   It can take the focus off of more important things. This relates to the first point – spending too much time on social media distracts us from the important things in life. How often do we unthinkingly prioritize media over spending time with God and with our families? It can happen all too easily, without us even realizing it. That is why we need to be very aware of the amount of time we are spending online, and how much importance it has in our lives.  

   The internet presents unrealistic lifestyles. The photos that we see on social media are often pictures that have been carefully staged and edited to look their absolute best. That is fine, but we need to be aware of it! We frequently assume that is how their everyday life looks like. A pang of envy enters our hearts when we realize that we could never have our lives quite as put together as random-internet-lady, with her clean house and perfectly behaved children. Do not get caught up comparing yourself to things you see on the internet. It’s not real!

   It opens up the door to dangerous or unhealthy relationships. While good, lasting friendships can absolutely be formed online, there is a danger if we are not careful. There are predators online who want to trick you into trusting them and take advantage of you. As long as you are careful and don’t talk to, or share too much with suspicious strangers, the danger is minimal. Be wise about who you decide to spend time talking to over the internet. Because it’s online, anything that can be faked. 

   All of this to say, social media is by no means all bad! It can still be used for God’s glory and edification. God’s Word can be shared and an example of Christ’s love can be shown. It is great for keeping in touch with friends and new friends (carefully!). It can be used to encourage and inspire others, and share your life with others. When used wisely, social media can be good, useful and fun. When used carelessly, it can be dangerous in many regards. Be sure that all you do is done for the glory of God!

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I enjoyed writing this essay! The topic was suggested by a friend of mine, and I thought it would be a good thing to write about. I have Instagram, and I love it and have had good experiences with it, but I want to be aware of the potential dangers of social media.

Love, Rosy ❤️

Do you have any social media? What do you think about it?

March and April Life Update

Hello friends!! I hope this post finds you well. I’m sorry that I’ve been a bit MIA lately. I haven’t been too motivated to post on here the last few months, but I’m back now with with a life update from March and April. 🙂 It’s been an enjoyable last couple of months, the highlight being some of our friends in the States coming for a visit for a a few days. That was SO much fun, and I have lots of pictures of that to show you later on in the post. 😀

Actually, I was going to start with March, but honestly not that much happened. XD It was a difficult time ministry wise, but everything was pretty much normal at home. We worked on school and chores, and I did all of my normal activities like reading, blogging and practicing instruments. I made a few Youtube videos which I will share in a bit. I shared some about what happened in March in THIS POST. 🙂

You may remember how my brother, Andy, was hit by a truck and had to get a splenectomy. That was a very hard time, but since then he has recovered significantly, praise the Lord! We are very thankful that he is alive and doing well. He still can’t do much hard work and heavy lifting, but he is so much better than he was. 🙂 Thank you to everyone who prayed for us during that time!

Apple Orchard photoshoot

Where we live, we have apple orchards on pretty much all side of our house. I love going there in the beginning of Spring when the blossoms are blooming! I always have so much fun taking photos there.

I made fruit pizza for the first time. It was SO much fun, especially putting the fruit in a design on top. And it tasted pretty good too. 😁

A few of my siblings and I. The first two photos were taken on Ruthie’s 11th birthday, and the last two were on Bekah’s 13th birthday. ❤️

We’ve had a lot of beautiful sunsets. 🧡

I really like this painting I did, after months of not painting at all. It felt good to finally get one done after so long!

We spent a lot of time in mid-April getting ready for our group of friends from the States to come for a visit. We had SO much fun with them! Some of them were old friends, and some of them we were just getting to know for the first time. Everyone had a wonderful time together.

We took them to The Mirador, a place where you can look out over the town.

One of the people who visited was one of my closest friends, Kyra. I hadn’t seen her in around 8 months, so it was really good to spend time with her! ❤️

Kyra and I wrote a song together, which was a lot of fun!!

Books

I read more books than I normally do in March, but less than average in April.

March

There were SO many good books here! I read lots of books in series that I’ve been loving. I read a whole bunch in the Red Rain series as you can see. XD They were so good! The three books by P.D. Atkerson I read out loud to a few of my siblings. A good missionary biography and random child training book, LOL. XD I read Wuthering Heights, which I’d been wanting to read for quite a while. I liked it, didn’t love it, but I’m glad I read it!

April

I read two books by Jane Austen, and the entire Refuge series by my friend Kristina Hall. (They were really good!) Again, all of the P.D. Atkerson books were read alouds. I really enjoy reading to my siblings! The book It’s Not Supposed to be this Way is an amazing non-fiction book that I highly reccomend!

Youtube Videos

I made a few youtube videos that I really enjoyed. Here are links so that you can check them out if you want!!

Thank you guys for reading my post!! If you have any post ideas that you like to see, please let me know, because I need inspiration, lol!! XD

How have your last couple of months been??

Love, Rosy ❤️ 🌸

My Dream Home 🏡 🪴 ❤️

Hey friends! 💙

I don’t know about you, but I Iove to think about and “plan” my dream home. I have a lot of ideas that I’d love to have in my future home someday. I realize that many or most of these things may not happen, and I’m fine with that, but a girl can dream!! I’ve spent lots of time planning out my dream house on Pinterest, so I’m going to divide this post by room, and show you guys my favorite photos for each one.

Exterior

The House

I would love a white or cream colored house with gables and a gray roof, and on the larger size. It doesn’t have to be huge, but decent sized. XD Lol.

Yard

For the yard, I want it to be pretty spacious for kids to play in. I want a garden, and TONS of flowers. Literally everywhere. I want a white picket fence (Yes, cliche, I know….) And a grassy lawn and a front porch with a porch swing.

Interior

The interior was the funnest to plan. Here is the color scheme I’m going for. Pretty neutral, mostly beige, brown, light pink, green…. 😀

Kitchen

I LOVE these kitchen ideas! I want plenty of counter space and cabinets, and I’d love a light, airy atmosphere like these.

Living Room

Couches, a couple of bookshelves and some plants.

Music Room

I play several instruments, so this room would be amazing. It would have all the instruments I play, plus space and equipment for recording music and vocals. I don’t play violin by the way, it’s just in the picture because it’s pretty and I want to learn. XD

Library

You know me – I have to have a library in my dream house! It’s not even an option not too. XD I’d love a color coordinated book shelf, and a cozy book nook.

Art/craft room

A place for me to do all my art and journaling stuff would be very handy!

Bedroom

Bathroom and Laundry Room

Random Stuff

Last but not least, here are a few more random photos. The first once is like an entry way, then a dining room, some plants and decor, and a coffee nook. 😀

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That was SO much fun!!! I’ve had some much fun planning out what my dream home would look like, and even though I know I probably won’t get a house exactly like this, it helps my to know what I like and what elements I can incorporate and put to use in my own home someday. 😄

Thanks for reading!!!

Love, Rosy

Life Update after an Accidental Hiatus

Hey friends! ❤️ It’s been a HOT MINUTE since I’ve posted, I know… I haven’t been feeling very motivated to blog lately, but hopefully I will get inspired again. For now, here is a long over-due life update, complete with pictures. 😁

It’s been a WILD ride these past couple months. January was pretty boring and not much happened, but in February we traveled a lot, which was awesome, and in March my brother had in accident, which was not so awesome. More on that in a bit. 😉

In February (Valentine’s Day to be exact) we traveled to my grandparent’s house, and had a great time with them!!

Me and my grandparents ❤️

Grandma reading to the kids

We had lots of fun with our aunt, Abigail! We definitely did not stay up talking until 3 on that last night. (The next morning we had to get up at 5:30 to leave…. LOL. It’s fine though, my motto is “Sleep LATER.”)

We had such a great time making fancy coffee drinks everyday, being silly, and having fun together. 😀

Me, Abigail, Lizzie ❤

My Uncle Benjamin was able to come for a day as well, and it was really good to get to see him!

My mom and her mom 😊

A few days later I went with Dad and a few of my siblings to the border to shop and pick up mail. 😀 Here is a collage of a bunch of the photos I took on the trip. XD It was raining for a while while were were driving, which was so nice!

A few days after that, I went with my dad, Lizzie and Andy to the mountains. We had a lot of fun visiting some friends of ours there!

Traveling was a lot of fun, but it was good to settle back down again, and get back into normal life. Normal life didn’t last for very long though….

A couple of weeks ago, my brother Andy was hit by a car while on his bike. Praise the Lord, he wasn’t killed. He went to the hospital and got an x-ray, and he had no broken bones and they sent him home. He was very sore, and instead of recovering he only seemed to be getting worse. So my parents took him back to the hospital, and it turned out that his spleen had ruptured from the impact, and he had major internal bleeding. They operated on him right away and removed his spleen. He stayed in the hospital for several more days, and then came home. He has been resting and recovering since then!

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I’ve read a lot of good books so far this year. By 2023 reading goal is 260 books, and I’m on track so far.

And over a dozen more this month, but I’ll share those later. 😉 So like I said, SO many good books!!! Have you read any of these?

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I haven’t been as active on Youtube as I would like, due to all the craziness, but here is a book haul I did the other day!

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I’ve been very busy working on school, and getting ready to graduate. I only have a couple months of school left, and I’m very excited to finish! It’s been a lot of work though. 🙂 Speaking of though, I have math to do so I’m going to end this post here. 😉 Thank you so much fo reading!!!

How have you been the past few months?

Love, Rosy ❤️ 🌸

ESFP Memes!

Hey everyone!!! 😀 ❤️

The Meyer Briggs personality test fascinates me so much. I’ve known that I am an ESFP for years, but only recently have been doing a lot of research about it. It’s crazy how (mostly) accurate it is!! Anyway, I thought it would be fun to put together some memes about ESFPs. 😀 Who doesn’t love memes? If you’re an ESFP (or ENFP or ESFJ….) hopefully you will relate to some of these, and if you’re not I hope they will make you laugh anyway!!

Shout out to my sister, Lizzie, who is also an ESFP. 😁

First, here’s an image that explains what an ESFP personality is like real quick. 🙂 This way you get get the gist of the situation before moving on to the memes. 😂 😁

1. I do this all the time with recipes – I usually read through several recipes to get the gist of it, and then just make something up based on different things I read. It usually ends up ok…. Usually. 🤣

2. This is me and Lizzie basically every day.

3. #facts #sotrue #legit #nocap #truestuff #esfplifehack 🤣

4. This is the bane of my life. 😭

5. This. Definetely something I should work on…. XD

6. This one made me laugh, LOL! 🤣

7. Change friend to my mom. Oops. I promise this is not on purpose! 🤣

8. I actually come into a lot of social situations with this mindset. If I succeed, then it’s MISSION ACCOMPLISHED! 🤣

9. *just spent hours making Pinterest boards for my favorite books* But it was fun!!

10. This is what happens every single time I make a new friend. 😂

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I hope you guys laughed as much as I did over these, and I hope some of y’all were able to relate to some of them!! I had lots of fun putting it together. 😀 I’m curious if I have any other ESFP followers, so if you are one, let me know!!!

Love, Rosy

Could you relate to any of these? What’s your mbti personality? (Or, if you don’t know, are you extraverted or introverted?)

Thursday’s Thoughts – Reasons to Place our Trust in God

Trusting God can be hard, especially when we are going through trials. We tend to place our faith in ourselves, trusting in our own faulty thoughts and emotions, and putting too much emphasis on what we do and accomplish. I know that I have been guilty of this so often in my life. Whether it was relying on what I do right now to take care of my future, or putting my feelings over the truth of what God says in His word. Sometimes I forget God, and forget to place my trust fully in Him. However, I strive to have more faith in Him, through His grace. Here are some compelling reasons I have found to put your trust completely in the Lord. 

He tells us to! This is the most important point, as He actually commands us in His word to trust in him with all of our hearts.  

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him,  and he will make your paths straight.” Proverbs 3:5-6

He is constant and unchanging. And we are not. Our feelings and emotions change almost constantly. Mine have an uncanny ability to make a complete 180 in less than a minute sometimes, whether for better or worse! Basically though, we humans are in a state of constant change as we experience hardships and joys in life. However God is the same yesterday, today and forever. Doesn’t that seem like a good reason to trust in Him over ourselves? 

“The heart of God is eternal and unchanging. Before God laid the foundations of our universe, He was a being of infinite power and love, and He will remain so throughout all eternity” Corrie Ten Boom

He is sovereign and all-knowing. He made us, and he knows everything there is to know about us, and our future. I find it so comforting to know that nothing could happen to me that’s outside of His will, even if it’s not something that I prefer. And if it’s not, I know that He will work it out for good. 

“When terrible things happen…there are two choices… We can trust God, or we can defy Him. We believe that God is God. He’s still got the whole world in His hands and knows exactly what He’s doing.” Elisabeth Elliot 

In everything that happens, we have a choice to make. We can trust God, or we can trust in ourselves. Anyone who has tried that knows that that usually ends up… Not well! I pray that God will continue to give me grace to place my trust fully and completely in Him. He is faithful!

Rosy Marr

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMUnhtRHoUS28jgNkuugxzw

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/138210438-rosy-marr

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Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rosyjoymarr/

Mary and Martha Website: https://www.mymaryandmartha.com/JOYOFLIVING/

Join my Mary and Martha Newsletter!

Hey friends! ❤️

Something I’ve been meaning to do for a long time is set up a newsletter for my business, Mary and Martha. I don’t know what all of what it’s going to look like yet, but it will include…

1. Early sale announcements
2. Featured/favorite products
3. Updates on my business
4. Maybe a giveaway or contest every so often
5. Biblical encouragement and inspiration
6. And more fun stuff!!

Also, I will probably be sending out some amazing new product launches in February, which I’m so excited for! Also, I won’t clog up your inbox, and your email will remain private. 🙂

Please consider joining if you are interested in any of the above, plus whatever I come up with in the future.

Sign up for my new Newsletter

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Looking forward to seeing you there!!

Love, Rosy ❤️

Humanism, and its Effects on the World – An Essay

Hey friends! This isn’t my usual go-to type of post, but regardless, I hope you enjoy this essay I wrote for school a bit ago. 😀

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Humanism, and its Effects on the World

Essay by Rosy Marr

Humanism is a worldview or way of thinking that brings greater importance to men rather than God. It started to become popular in Europe in the early 1500’s, at the same time as Reformation. It seemed innocent at first, but the effect it would have on the world would be cataclysmic. 

Thomas Aquinas was among the first to popularize humanistic philosophy, by attempting to separate philosophical and theological knowledge; the problem with this is that theological doctrines do answer philosophical questions, and are needed to make accurate and Biblical assessments. But Aquinas took this notion even further and further, until what he called philosophical knowledge, completely contradicted every important component of theological knowledge. As men took on this way of thinking, it separated God from their own personal ideas. Mankind was never meant to function independently of the Lord’s ways, that He has shown us in the Scriptures. 

Men such as Rene Descartes, John Locke and Sir Francis Bacon continued this ideology. Descartes said, “I think, therefore I am”, bringing man to the center-point of his own existence. Locke believed that the human mind was the starting point of all knowledge, gained by his own experiences and discoveries. Bacon rejected the Bible’s teachings as truth, and instead trusted in man’s scientific knowledge, research and analysis. Man’s reason was his king. 

More and more, men abandoned God’s Word, and looked to themselves as the highest source of truth. They ignored Psalm 36:9, which says, “For with You is the fountain of life; in Your light, we see light.” According to this passage, man cannot properly see any truth, apart from the light of God. It is His truth that enables us to find truth and comprehend it. For Christians, there is only one source of truth – the fear of the Lord. (Proverbs 1:7)

Ideas produce consequences, and the consequences of humanism are seen all throughout the world today. It has affected our modern lives in the following examples.

Educationally; This is seen in the removal of the Bible and prayer from public schools. While school used to be heavily influenced by Christianity, that began to decline when men like John Dewey worked hard to include humanism in their newly secularized curriculum. Now, we can see that current primary education goes through great lengths to avoid the acceptance of God, instead teaching humanism, evolution, socialism, and new age beliefs.

Politically; We can see this in the outcomes of Leopold-Loeb and the Scopes trials, huge milestones in the fall of the West. Karl Marx’s Communist Manifesto brought about his socialist agenda in America. People surrendered more and more power to the government, and the state fought for more control over people and families. 

The Church; The Church has also been majorly affected by humanism. The Church has always been looked up to as a source of religious truth, and has a big influence on many people’s minds. Consequently, it’s extremely dangerous when it begins to pick up false teachings. The teachings of the Bible were replaced with modernism and experimentalism, leaving behind the teaching of those such as John Calvin, John Knox, Martin Luther and William Tyndale. In the last 200 years, much of the Christian Church has been corrupted. Attributes that were once only attributed to God, were now put on man, as they began to see themselves increasingly more and more powerful compared to their Maker. Man made himself the chief end of man in worship.

So many other areas of Modern American culture have also been greatly affected by humanistic ideology. The world, in relying and trusting in themselves, have strung themselves into a spiral of hopelessness. They have attempted to cut God from their lives, and therefore have nothing to hold on too. 

Humanism, and many other related concepts, are so readily accepted in our world today, that sometimes it may be difficult to recognize it.  It’s important to be able to distinguish it when we see it around us, so as not to be caught up in it. We should always remember that God is the highest source of truth, and that He is our Lord.

2023 Reading Journal Set Up 🤎

Hey friends!!

For 2023, I’ve decided to keep two bullet journals. My regular journal, and a reading journal. As you know, I love to read, so I’m very excited about starting it. Here’s what I did for my 2023 yearly set up. 🙂

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I decided the theme would simply be brown, since it matches the cover. Here’s the notebook I’m using, by the way. This was my bullet journal in 2022, and now I’m using it for both of my bullet journals this year as well. So as you can tell, I really love it!!

On the very first page, I wrote a bookish quote, and a quick cover page.

After that, I made a tracker to keep track of my Goodreads reading challenge, which is 160 books. I accidentally drew too many squares, but that’s probably a good thing, in case I decide to increase my goal in the future. XD

I also have a page to write down every book I read in 2023, but it’s quite simple so I won’t post it here.

A page to keep track of all the book I purchase in 2023. Probably should have done more than two pages…. 😂

These next two pages have a place to write down my favorite books, authors and characters of 2023.

I listed all the books of the Bible on this page, and will mark them off as I complete them. I am still working on the second page, as you can see. It’s a book bingo game, and I’m writing a bunch of bookish goals in the squares. I’m still trying to think of more goals! XD

I’m so excited about this reading challenge by Chantel!

I also decided to do an alphabet challenge where I try to read a book starting with each letter of the alphabet. It should be easy, except for a couple of letters. (like x?!?!?! Lol!) I also made a series tracks. Those are the ones I’m reading right now. I left an empty space at the end of each one, JUST in case the authors publish another one in the series…. haha!

And that’s it for my yearly spreads!!!! Now, here are my monthly spreads for January while I’m at it. 😀

My cover page has the name of the month, plus a place to write the books I read. That way when I look back at it in the future, I’ll instantly be able to see exactly what I books I read in that month. 🙂

On the second spread I have my planned TBR for January, and a Days I Read tracker.

A journal area to write my thoughts on the the books I’m reading, and a place to put my reviews.

Here I will put in all the books I finish reading, and also keep track of some of the reading related habits I want do each day. Also, some monthly stats. 🙂

A page to write down my favorite quotes I come across – if I end up remembering any of them. I need to work that. XD And on the next page, I can keep track of the books I’m reading, and mark each chapter as I read it. I’ve been doing this page in my regular bullet journal, but now I’m moving it here. 🙂

In the following month I want to do spreads and collages dedicated to my favorite books I read. I’m so excited to use this journal throughout 2023!!

Thank you for reading this post!! I hope that it will give you all some ideas and inspiration for your own journals, if you enjoy that sort of thing. 🙂

Love,

Rosy ❤️

Marr Family Christmas, 2022 // What I Got

Hey everyone!! How was your Christmas?

My family celebrated Christmas on the 26th, since the day before were busy with other stuff, like Church. 🙂 Even though I wasn’t feeling too well, it was still a really good day!!

For breakfast we made Buñelos, a Mexican Christmas treat, which is a fried flour tortilla with cinnamon and sugar. So yummy!! We also had eggs and bacon. (Sorry the photo is kind of dark. It was still dark outside, so I didn’t have good lighting.)

When breakfast and chores were done, we read Luke 1 and 2 in the Bible. After that, one of our Christmas traditions is the saran wrap ball. My mom wraps up a bunch of stocking stuffer type gifts in saran wrap to make a big ball, then we take turns unwrapping it and seeing what we get. I don’t know if that makes sense, but it’s fun! 😂 😄 Then a few people had some of their own gifts to give out.

For lunch, we made a charcuterie board! We’ve never done one of those before, and it was a lot of fun to put together! And it was so pretty!!!! 😍

What I Got

Washi tape from the saran wrap ball. I didn’t get all that myself, but one of the funnest parts of the saran wrap ball is the trading that happens afterward. So I traded to get a bunch of washi tape… 😂

Some snacks and healthier candy from the saran wrap ball. Some of this was also traded for. And my brother got me the Doritos. 😄 😋

I got the gel pens in the ball, and traded my brother for the fiber tip pens. I’m excited to use these!

The notepad and hair claw are from my sisters, and the rest from the ball. I’m excited to learn the Clue card game – that should be interesting!! And those Dr. Suess book earners are adorable. 😍

And that’s what I got! My gift to my family was a one month subscription to the Adventures in Odyssey club.

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That evening, for supper we had leftovers from the charcuterie board. (We continued eating those leftovers for the next couple of days, haha!!)

Then we watched a Christmas movie together. We usually try to watch one Christmas movie every year. This year we watched The Christmas Shoe. Everyone but my dad had already seen it multiple times, but we wanted to watch it with him. I really love that movie! I cry every single time. (If you don’t, do you even have a heart?!?!) 😭 💔

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It was a really good Christmas!! Praise God for the gift of His Son.❤️

I’m sad it’s over, but I’m so, so, SO excited for the New Year and 2023. CAN’T WAIT!!!!! I’m so ready for it. 😂 Lol.

Tell me what you did for Christmas! Have you watched The Christmas Shoes, and if so, did you cry? Are you excited for 2023?

Love,

Rosy ❤️🎄