Hi Ya'll! I wonder how your time in quarantine is going.
(What am I even saying?!?! To think our 2020 has come to this?!?!)
Public school districts have closed, the sounds of traffic coming through my windows of the busy main street I live off of has lessened, and it seems like the infamous, microscopic, trouble-making viral organism we have on our hands (no pun intended), has subjected all of man-kind to staying home. Aside from the fact that because of Covid 19 I am now unemployed indefinitely with next-to-no income, at the top of week-one with the new mandate from our government to stay home, I was kinda excited about the idea of it. My thought process was, "With no binding work schedule or social engagements filling my week, maybe this is exactly what I need to reform my poor sleeping patterns, catch up on life, and reestablish better time management!" Not to mention, as an introvert, staying home comes easy!
I've always been a glass-half-full kind of gal (obviously).
But I gotta say, week one has proven quarantine to be more of a challenge for me than I initially expected. Boredom wasn't the issue. I am intrinsically wired for keeping busy, and ALWAYS have projects lined up to work on. If I've ever had a "productivity issue" it'd be planning TOO MUCH to do in one day. But No! My issue during my first week in quarantine was
LAZINESS!!!
Yes; laziness, a lack of motivation, and to my surprise, some emotional instability. I know I can be hard on myself sometimes, but trust me when I say things were a little out of control there for a hot minute. I think you'd agree that sleeping in until 2 PM for multiple days in a row is a little excessive. One of the challenges of living alone is having no accountability for things like that. I believe in taking a good sabbath rest, but I know in my heart that things were a little off-kilter.
It didn't take very long for feelings of sadness and purposelessness to set in. It didn't help that when I wasn't sleeping I spent most of my waking hours the first couple of days glued to my phone, taking in one bad report after another concerning the corona virus, and numbing myself with social media and silly memes. Nothing against the memes. I think all the people responsible for creating them are FANTASTIC hilarious geniuses. I am always one for comic relief, but I'm not okay with how almost over night life on earth began being reshaped by panic, fear, and confusion. The memes were only entertaining to me for a short bit before finding some of them distasteful, as I observed that their mockery only began to feed select peoples' frustrations and bitterness, disguised as comic relief but more so serving to only further magnify the grim situation.
My life left solely to waking up to take care of myself and to get things done for myself very quickly began to feel two dimensional, void of the third dimension; waking up to take care, invest in, and love other people. I have never realized until now just how much I live for that third dimension! I wonder if all people do? And this, my friends, is the exact reason for why this social distancing thing has been much harder on me than I anticipated.
Lessons Learned :
- In the short time span of this past week I've had to teach myself a new way to care for, invest in, and love other people, relying heavily on technology to help keep me connect with others, giving me a new found motivation in this new way of life. I'm not sure if the whole idea of "needing to be needed" would define the complex I have as I'm still trying to process through my thoughts and emotions, but through this I have also realized that aside from the fulfillment I get from helping others, without connecting with others, I myself can feel deprived of being cared for, invested in, and loved, which can make all the difference in how I go about my day and in how I feel emotionally.
- I also was reminded of the power of God's Word which was what helped me shake off the heavy emotions and laziness, and helped me feel like myself again by the end of the week!
- God used the tangible experience I underwent this past week of starting off the week in peace with my mind stayed on thee to then finishing it in turmoil feeling hopeless, to show me just how impressionable our minds are. I can see now how I allowed too much of the "doom and gloom" on social media to impact my mind, derail my faith and security in Christ, and distract me from the eternal perspective I was so determined in the beginning to maintain. Our minds truly are a battle field. I so desire for Christ to rule and reign in mine; to see our present circumstaces as they are, but to view them through a lense of faith! The lesson that I learned here is that just as my mind can be transformed into that of Christ's, so too can it be transformed into that of the world's if I'm not careful, requiring that I take the utmost caution deciding what to fill my mind with! The following scriptures helped to clear my cloudy mind this week.
Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your MIND. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
~Romans 12:2
Those who live according to the flesh have their MINDS set on what the flesh desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their MINDS set on what the Spirit desires. The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace. The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God. You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you.
~Romans 8:5-9
Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable--if anything is excellent or praiseworthy--think about such things. ~Philippians 4:8
Thanks for stopping by!
Blessings in Christ Jesus our Lord!
Drop a comment down below and let us know how your doing.
What bible verses have been your source of hope lately!
Ciao!
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