Grace and Salt on Twitter (And some Light, Too, I Hope)

(Pictured above are Rex, Nessie, Sonny and Sis from the Disciplesaurs Puppet Play Series)

Let your speech always be with grace, as though seasoned with salt, so that you will know how you should respond to each person (Colossians 4:6).

Someone shared a link on Facebook the other day, in an authors’ group to which I belong, and said it scared her. The blog post was about reasons why the writer might “block” someone on Twitter. I am so new on Twitter I don’t even know how to block someone, but when I went to read the post it didn’t tell me how to block anybody.

It did, however, berate anyone who promotes something that might be good and valuable, such as when I post a link to one of our books or those of another author. It also demanded that we not talk about anything that might be important or relevant, like politics or religion. In other words, don’t bother me with anything that might matter. I want my social media fluffy and self-centered.

So, I guess I won’t trip over my tongue running to Twitter to follow that blogger. I want my Twitter experience to be something beyond entertainment. I did take away some good advice from that post, however. I tend to post and retweet and copy tweets from files of people whom I want to support but leave it at that. The writer suggested I be conversational.

Uh-oh. My Twitterland experience must broaden. First I had to make my own Tweets. Now I have to make conversations. And I have to do it in 140 characters or less. Oh, wait, I’m kind of already doing that, I think. When someone retweets my tweets, or tells people they should follow me, or even becomes a follower, I make it a point to say thank you. That’s a tiny conversation.

(Pictured above is a scene from “It Ain’t Gonna Rain,” one of the Different View Bible stories Puppet Plays.)

I sometimes even show that I’m paying attention to who they are and what their profile says. One new follower has a focus on educational materials for younger children. I responded that I had written puppet plays about a dinosaur family and about animals telling Bible stories from their points of view. Another claimed to be an Ogre but said, instead of eating people, he ate vegetables. I thanked him for eating vegetables.

The politics and religion and sharing good authors will stay. If you’re offended, unfollow, bock, whatever. Because when it comes to Twitter, and everything else I do, I don’t just do it to socialize. It may be social media to you, but to me it’s another way to “Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 5:16).

Wanna follow me on Twitter? @MaryCFindley.