Not your story to tell

My intercessor has encouraged me to share what I wrote on my personal Facebook page on April 28, 2017 about the passing of my Dad in regards to those who feel the necessity to share someone else’s story without their permission and the need to be “first’.

I would like to take a moment to thank everyone who has called, sent a text or an inbox message this past week. Your kindness has not went unnoticed.
As I reflect, I have witnessed how social media impacts our daily lives. How Facebook is supposedly the “new” New York Times, Wall Street Journal and local news outlets. Many times this week I heard, I looked on Facebook but didn’t see anything.
And for myself, I have always dreaded reading someone’s post that isn’t their story “to tell”. Yet, people feel the need to be “first” to share the details of someone else’s life when it isn’t their story to tell.
When you go to post something in the every so lovely box that starts with: “What’s on your mind”, stop and think. Is it your story to tell? Did someone ask you to tell their story? Especially if you haven’t seen or talked to that person in months or years.
It is a shame when you are in a time of grief that you have to basically race to get to the people who need to know first before someone posts something on social media so that they aren’t blindsided like I have been in times past. It is a shame I had to give one of my closest friends my login information to handle anything I didn’t want to read and or see on my timeline that would pop up on my “memories” each year. I know the date and the time. It is now part of my story.
So my plea to you is this, if it isn’t your story to tell. Then just don’t tell it.