Last November I read the book Dating Detox: 40 Days of Perfecting Love In An Imperfect World by Kevin and Lisa Cotter.
The book is meant to be read in small spirts every day for forty days… I sped through it in one sitting LOL!
After reading the book, I texted the friend who had loaned the book to me, telling her how much I liked it!
I then had a crazy idea: What if I did something similar- a 40 day series of some sort? Talking about relationships- here on earth and ultimately our heavenly one with God? Ooh! I could do it during Lent! What if I did it as a Facebook Live series? Those are fun!
My friend loved the idea!
So I began to pray about it and mapped out an outline of the forty day series.
I decided that for the first week and a half we would discuss Spiritual disciplines, then we would discuss singleness, then dating, then breakups and engagements, then physical purity, and then end with our relationship with God.
My friend helped me come up with the name of the series: Broken Yet Beloved.
I came up with a free Scripture reading guide to go along with the series that I would offer to my email subscribers.
On February 14th- the start of Lent- I went Live on Facebook for the first installment of the Broken Yet Beloved series.
Then every day (except Sundays), I went Live with a different topic for the day.
I learned a lot from doing this Facebook Live series, and today I decided to compile a list of these lessons so I could share them with you :) This will be a fun “behind the scenes” post :)
1. Breaks Are Essential!
Did you catch a second ago when I said that I didn’t go Live on Sundays?
That was purposeful for two reasons:
- It would give me a day of rest
- The forty days of Lent don’t count Sundays, so by excluding those days, it would keep my series to an even forty days, not forty-seven days.
After about a week of doing Facebook Lives every day, I was so thankful for these scheduled breaks! Each Saturday I was on the edge of Facebook Live burnout… these breaks helped me start again, refreshed, each Monday.
If you ever want to do a Facebook Live series that will last for longer than a week, consider scheduling a break or two. You might be thankful later that you did!
2. Planning Is Important!
Like I mentioned before, I had mapped out the entire series way before it even started.
By “mapped out,” I mean I knew the topic for each day.
However, if I were to do it all again, I would have been even more prepared by knowing exactly what I wanted to talk about before the day of.
I’m a procrastinator, so for most of the videos, I determined what exactly I would say about five minutes before going Live. Don’t be like me ;) Plan as much as possible beforehand to save yourself stress!
3. It’s Weird When People Watch Live…
I’m still fairly new to this whole Facebook Live thing. I’m not used to people actually tuning in Live. I’ve become quite comfortable just talking to the camera.
So, when the little eyeball with a number by it icon pops up in the corner of my screen- it takes me a little completely by surprise. I have a mini freak-out in my head “AHHH SOMEONE’S WATCHING ME!!!”
Terrifying.
I love connecting with you guys- either by email, Instagram, Facebook, blog comments, etc. But the thought of one of you watching me in real-time? Still freaks me out.
I’m sloooowly getting better at this though.
4. Giving Yourself Grace Is Important
You might be wondering, So the title of this post says the Facebook Live series was 39 days… yet earlier you said that the series was going to be 40 days… what happened?
Life happened, my friend.
There was one Saturday where I absolutely did NOT get the chance to go live. It was a busy day and an emotional day on top of that. So I skipped the video, completely intending to make it up the next day (Yay for Sundays and breaks!)
But then Sunday came along and I decided to just skip the video altogether. I decided it wouldn’t be the end of the world if the series ended up being 39 days instead of 40.
5. I Really Like Facebook Lives… Just Not Every Day
Like I said in my first point, burnout is a real struggle!
About 15 days into the series, the novelty wore off and I began to look forward to Easter and the end of this series. Somedays I dreaded having to go live. It seemed like an inconvenience to my entire day (even though they only take on average 6 minutes!)
On those days, I had to take a deep breath, and pray for God to give me the wisdom to know what to say and the motivation to say it with.
Now that the series is over, I’m so excited to just go back to the once a week Facebook Live videos. Mondays at 5 pm CST is way more doable than every single day.
I think everyone should try making a Facebook Live video!
…Especially if you are a blogger!
I personally love watching other people’s Facebook Live videos (and Instagram Lives too, for that matter). I feel like it makes the person speaking way more relatable and authentic. Afterall, there’s no hiding mistakes and imperfections on Live video!
If you would like to watch some of my past Facebook Live videos, you can find them in my video library. I also created a page with all of the Broken Yet Beloved videos for easy access for you :)
