reclaiming social media trends as biblical disciplines

analyzing how what we see online reveals the inner needs of the human heart and how God's original and perfect design for the world intended to meet it

As a younger millennial, I feel like it is well within my rights to call myself a pioneer of the social media space.

At 6 years old, I was bugging my uncles to let me chat with their friends on AOL (they are only 10 and 13 years older than me, so more like fun big brothers or cousins). At 12, I was spending hours on the family computer coding Myspace HTML backgrounds and fighting with my sister about whose turn it was to illegally download songs from Limewire to my iPod shuffle (sorry, Mom!). At 16, I made my debut on Facebook when status updates forced you to have the format of “Sarah is” so my statuses read something like “Sarah is ‘omg the new Twilight movie was soooooo good ;]]] team jacob 4 eva!’”. At 18, I fell into the black hole of Pinterest scrolling, which was a severe distraction from my college studies, and Instagram was a place where 5 likes on a picture of my froyo with a Valencia filter was “going viral”. At 21, I entered the workforce and was deemed the “social media coordinator” because I was the youngest in the office, and the rest was history.

Needless to say, as an almost 33-year-old mom of 2 in 2026, I feel like I’ve seen. it. all. The trends. The comparisons. The rebrands. The rise and fall of influencers. The overconsumption. The birth of the OG mommy bloggers. Nothing surprises me anymore, really.

I feel like I need an old tobacco pipe and rocking chair just thinking of the acceleration of social media and what it used to be like “back in my day” when a guy lip syncing to Numa Numa was peak internet comedy (still is for me but I digress.”

So, as someone who has not necessarily seen it all but has seen a lot, something that’s been on my heart is how Christians can reclaim some of the things we have seen online.

I swore I would never join TikTok until burnout, loneliness, and being a new mom in the pandemic drove me to seek out community there in the midst of isolation. It was nothing like I had ever seen before. I felt seen, understood, entertained, and like I was learning something new every day.

But as much as I loved (and still enjoy) the app, I was also learning of new lifestyles and parenting philosophies I should adhere to (clean girl, soft living, Pilates mom, gentle parenting, etc.)

For every new thing I learned that helped me in life, I also learned of something new to fear.

For every time I felt seen in one area, I found a new part of myself to critique.

Every time I felt like normal was finally being normalized, it felt like a new, unrealistic expectation was being set as the new normal.

I wasn’t sure how to handle the constant contradictions I felt as social media, TikTok in particular, seemed to make me both a better and worse wife, mom, and Christian person.

As I’ve spent the last few years processing things, I realized that a pattern was emerging: behind every trend or lifestyle or viral moment was a reflection of the needs and desires of the human heart.

I wrote a bit about this in my “psychology behind the 2026 analog living trend” article and how this specific trend “shouldn’t surprise us that, amid a striving, burnt-out, overly digital world, there is a rise in people seeking connection and greater purpose in things that feel safer and simpler” and how “it also shouldn’t surprise us that this world will never be able to give us things the way God intended, and so we will see God’s design butchered and repackaged in a lousy, lazy attempt at mimicry.”

As a mom who spent most of new motherhood as an avid TikTok consumer, the thing I have seen most often is “romanticizing life/romanticizing motherhood/whimsical parenting”. Videos of gentle moms in beautiful homes with flowy dresses and quietly playing kids with sunshine beaming through an open window overlooking a wildflower garden.

Yeah, I bet it’s easy to romanticize motherhood when it is portrayed like THAT.

“But but but Sarah, you post ALL the time about romanticizing life”.

I know, I know, that and “intentional living” are the primary things I post about. However, it is because of that kind of content that I am so passionate about reclaiming what romanticizing life as a biblical discipline. It’s easy to immediately hate on trends or prepackaged lifestyles, but what I want to do is go deeper and ask, “What is it that I’m seeing online making me feel? What is it that is inspiring me to do or not do? What need does this seek to fulfill? How does this line up with God’s design for life?”

So, in my journey to reclaim social media trends as a Christian mom, I have started with the trend of romanticizing life and how to do so through a biblical framework.

From what I have seen, it comes down to two things:

• Everything you see online and in life reflects the perfect design God had for the universe, and that design broke when sin entered the world.

• There’s always going to be a cheap imitation of God’s perfect design that overpromises and underdelivers.

The Framework: Contentment and Stewardship

So what can romanticizing life look like through the Christian framework? From my experience, it comes down to the disciplines of contentment and stewardship.

On Contentment

When you talk about romanticizing life, faith, and motherhood, I think people often get the misconception that it’s about an idealized version of a life you are aspiring to, rather than being inspired to see your life as ideal right now. “Romanticizing life” took on a whole new meaning when I made it a habit to find beauty where I was. And sometimes when there’s nothing beautiful around you, you find that beauty in God himself because he is the most beautiful thing in the world.

Philippians 4:11–12:

Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me.

On Stewardship:

Contentment and stewardship are two sides of the same coin of discipline. When you learn to be content, you are a better steward of what you have. When you are faithful in stewarding the small and unremarkable things you have now, it can not only help you grow in your appreciation of what you DO have but also prepare you to care for and appreciate the greater things you WILL have.

When I first got married, I struggled so much with discontent in how my home looked. It got to the point where I forced myself to stop watching HGTV and going on Pinterest because I was not only discontented and envious of what I saw, but also grew not to care very much about what we did have.

Over time, though, I learned to love thrifting and finding things second-hand, and made it like a scavenger hunt to collect items that resonated with me and fell under a common theme/color scheme. It’s been so fun seeing how I can bring all these random items together to decorate our home, and now, 5 years into living in our current home, I am so in love with it, and I know younger me would have loved it too. Faithful stewardship not only changes your mindset; it also shifts your heart posture.

Matthew 25:23: "His master replied, 'Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!

Reclaiming the Mundane

Ultimately, what I’ve learned is that as Christians, we don’t have to be against every single thing that we see on social media, and that ultimately, there is a human yearning for a heavenly satisfaction behind whatever trend we see.

So the next time you see a trend or lifestyle online, I want to challenge you to see how you can reclaim and reframe it through the words of Jesus. We can do this by embracing the trend of “romanticizing life” and finding beauty in the mundane, viewing it as a biblical discipline of contentment and stewardship. This is the biggest takeaway that I’ve learned in my journey to dwell and delight in the Lord and in my life.

If you have your own thoughts, opinions, or realizations, I would love to know! I think life becomes much sweeter when God starts connecting the dots on what life is supposed to look like when you walk with Him, and how everything we do echoes the glory of our eternal and ethereal Creator.

Love,

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