Just checking in on you <3

How are you doing? 

Are you holding up? 

In the past week I have heard of or been with people who are facing some heavy stress from the new normal. 

Teachers, administrators, parents and students are having regular meltdowns and facing feelings of frustration and depression. 

Families are standing outside of windows communicating via phone with their loved ones in a nursing facility who have no idea why this is happening to them. 

Parents who are gifted and talented and very good at what they trained to do are now attempting to also become the teacher in a home school that was thrown together in a matter of weeks. 

Servers are being asked to wear a mask while the customers breathe their order up into their sweet faces. 

Cities where people gathered and shouted protests are now shrouded in smoke so thick it is impossible to breathe. 

While communities were preparing their town to be hit by a hurricane, the winds shifted and it brought devastation somewhere else.

As businesses are closing or cutting back, people are trying to figure out how much longer they can go without a regular paycheck.

In a home, everyone is affected by the changes the pandemic has brought and the way they respond varies. Flexing to all the different coping mechanisms while trying to get your own feet grounded is stressful and frustrating.

Those are just a few of the examples that come to my mind.

It’s rough out there and we are lacking opportunities to gather together and talk and hug and support one another. We are turning to social media if that is a place of connection, but for many that isn’t even an option. 

So we have a false sense of community through apps or nothing. 

As Christ followers, we need to be reaching out through whatever means are available to communicate with others. If we are using social media, it should be to encourage and lift up and be supportive of others. We can also prayerfully think of those we know who are not on social media and give them phone call or send a note. 

In this time of upheaval, our go to response may be to preserve our own sanity and safety and shut down. We can’t do that. We have to be asking God who we can come alongside of today and then reach out. 

Remember how very much you are loved <3