Busyness of Life

Most people did not realize how busy and exhausted they were until forced to stay at home due to COVID-19. Before the pandemic, we were so focused on all the busyness of life—sports events, games and practices, piano lessons, dance classes and recitals, school and homework, meetings of various kinds, and the list could go on and on. Don’t get me wrong, my extrovert personality was having a pretty hard time being forced to “shut” down and quarantine for several months, but God taught me many things during that time. I often wondered since we couldn’t, or we wouldn’t slow down, maybe God was affording us a time of stillness and pause, creating many opportunities with our family that we never took the time to have before. At least not true intentional time set aside for ourselves or allowing ourselves to have deliberate conversations with our friends and family that we may never have had otherwise.

I was often asked, “How are you guys doing with virtual learning?” or “How have you handled all being stuck inside and being forced to slow down?” I’ll be honest, at first, it was extremely hard. All our “normal” routines were put on pause for months, but over several weeks I began to view it as a gift. During that time God was showing me that my “busyness” became my idol, and my days were filled with activities and just normal daily routine. I became so focused on my checklist and accomplishing my “goal” for the day that my true priority, my family, became a part of my busyness. Over the last 5 months I looked at what He gave me as a gift, and intentionally spent time with my family while teaching my son how to ride his bike, going for walks around our neighborhood as a family, and spending Saturdays doing projects around the house that probably would have never happened if we hadn’t been given this time.

Don’t get me wrong! I am glad to be back “among the world” and teaching students face to face, but my prayer has been that I will not allow myself to become so consumed with the “busyness” of life that I lose my focus on what’s truly important in front of me. God’s calling of me is to be a mother to my kids, a wife to my husband, a friend to others, and following His command to go and make disciples. I am continually reminded of the verse in Psalm that says “Be still and know that I am God.” He literally tells us to “be still” and in the Hebrew language that means to let go and stop striving. God is teaching me that in the midst of our busy lives He is calling us to “let go” and know or understand that He is God, He is Sovereign, and He is in control of all. Believe me, this is definitely a work in progress in my soul, but I’m striving to allow myself to “be still” as the Holy Spirit speaks truth into my anxious, overwhelmed heart. I pray that as we begin to return to our new normal that we wouldn’t forget to be intentional with our time and to take time to focus on what’s truly important!