@faithfullylaura started back in March, about a week into quarantine. I would do my Bible readings and do Instagram stories when I found something exciting. People would tell me it was something that they found encouraging, and then one day in March a friend messaged me and said “Laura, you need to be an influencer on Instagram. You're helping me. And I think you can help other people.” And about 10 minutes later, I went outside, started taking pictures. It was a very fast turnaround. I just needed to be nudged a little bit. 

I try to be as authentic as possible. I am not trying to contribute to the negative Instagram space. I'm not trying to contribute to making other girls feel bad about themselves, or saying “my spiritual life is better than your spiritual life.” No, I am telling you when I am having an awful time, I have not opened my Bible in a week because of this or that. I'm showing people that it is okay to have highs and lows in your spiritual life and normalizing that because it's so private a lot of the time. As a teenager, that hurt me so badly, so with every post, I think, “how would this have helped me when I was younger? How can I help my friends now? And what can I offer to people?” I never want my account to glorify me. I remind myself “I'm doing this to glorify God, to bring God to people using social media, to bring a personal relationship with Jesus to people.”

In a world full of disgusting stuff on Instagram, stuff that’s not glorifying God, I am trying to plant the seeds of faith. God is the one who is going to give the increase, and God has given increase. I have about 2,200 people on my Instagram and about 1,500 are not Christadelphians and that itself is very humbling because our faith is bigger than us. There is a massive world out there of people who have faith.

I often share pictures of artistic bible-marking. Some people might hesitate, thinking, “I can't write in my nice wide margin.” I felt that way too, so I got a second bible, an ESV journaling Bible. I use that as my blank slate, my creative Bible, and then my King James wide margin is my study bible. If I want to have a chain of really cool points, that's where my color code belongs.  But I’ve realized that's not a Bible I've been reaching for in the past seven or eight months. I just have such a deep connection to my ESV journaling bible because I feel free to have a relationship with the words that are written there and the people of God who wrote those words.

It's not just about Bible journaling because I want it to be relatable to anybody. I often talk about vulnerable things, so much that people are like, “Laura, do you really want to be bringing that into such a public space?”  But I’ve had so many messages from people thanking me for writing. I get these often because it is resonating with people in a way that's helping them. I also talk about anxiety, depression, body image, self-esteem, spiritual highs, and most importantly, I talk about spiritual lows because that's when we need the most support.

I struggled during the beginning of the Covid pandemic because I was isolated from my family who were across the country in California, and I couldn’t go home.  That was hard for me. But through it all, I built my trust on God, trusted that my Bible study was what I needed more than anything and trusted that I could help people through @faithfullylaura. I really wanted to work on trusting God this year, because I am a person that wants control. I want to be in charge. I want to know what's happening and if nobody tells me, I freak out. Coronavirus has not helped my emotional state but by opening my Bible and getting good quality time every day, I saw so much progress. It constantly amazes me because I realize this is truly what I want for my life. There's nothing that brings me so much rest and so much peace.

I never knew what my spiritual life could truly be like but Bible study and excitement for the truth and changing the way I view my relationship with God and Jesus has opened a whole new world to me. It can be just writing anything you want in your Bible. It can be intense Bible study. It could be singing. It could be prayer. I’ve learned that growing your relationship with God and Jesus gives you the power to strive towards the kingdom. In the past, I was excited for the kingdom, but never like I am now. Through my own way of connecting with God and Jesus, I see doors have been opened to me.  I see the absolute rest that can wash over me and I never want to go back to anything else.

To listen to the full interview with Laura and Levi please check out our A Little Faith podcasts.