Bad news left and right almost left me with my knees shaking and my head pounding. In a matter of 24 hours, I felt my world crashing down. As the hours passed, I found myself in a quiet place thinking about what the future holds. Though very uncertain, I realized some blessings that were right under my nose.
Blessing 1: More Time for the Kids
We always say we don’t have enough time with our kids. We do now. Imagine how amazing this month is going to be for them and for us! I am so sure this month could be one of the most magical days of your children’s life because of the time and attention we can devote to them. Bring out the board games, or the small inflatable pool.
Blessing 2: Slow Living
We go back to slow living. We’re forced to slow down to live, breathe, and relax. We’ve been living in years of busyness for so long, we have forgotten how it was to have that extra spare time on our hands. Less meetings, less meetups. We are stripped down to the most basic and most important interaction, our family. The silver lining is that this rest may be the rest we’ve been forced to brush aside for a few years now. Granted not all are afforded this choice, I do believe to a certain degree that all of us are forced to go slower so I hope that good things also come out of it. If you are in the position to pause, you should be very, very, very thankful. Again, not everyone has the luxury of slowing down.
Blessing 3: Enrich Marriage
We get to enrich our marriages. Busy schedules and never ending to-do’s tend to put our communication and time with our spouses in the back seat. Social media has even taken the place of our conversation and time with our spouses. Yes, social media is still around. Honestly, with all the stressful things I am seeing online right now, I find comfort in the talks that I have had with my husband the past few days. Take this time to disconnect with the world, and connect with your husband or wife. Marriages need to keep growing and this is a chance for us to strengthen it.
Blessing 4: Less Spending
Less monthly spending. Less eating out, less activities, less gas use, etc. — more savings! Over all life expenses and having kids is not cheap for sure. I’m quite excited to see how our monthly spending will really go down because of all the cuts in expenses. I will have to be creative with entertaining the boys with existing items in the house already.
Blessing 5: Stronger Relationship with God
More time to enrich your relationship with God. I have to admit, my first reaction was fear and panic. But as I sat down and prayed, I remembered that in trials we are reminded to draw near to Jesus. That in all of this, He remains the great healer and restorer. There are lessons in life and faith that we will only learn through trials. My hope for all of us is that we all come out of this better, wiser, and more thankful than ever.
