Let me start by saying this article will not focus on all that has been lost due to the mass shut-down of our schools, businesses, and gathering places, but will instead focus on all that has been gained in my home (and hopefully, others). My family had just returned from an out-of-state trip to the University of Virginia to watch our son’s home baseball series when the world began to shut down. It was recommended that we travel with Lysol wipes to clean our plane seats, especially traveling through LaGuardia. We did so having no idea what was about to be removed from lives all over the globe.

After sulking over what had just been removed from the lives of our three kids and the shock of the shut-down set in, I began to realize the unbelievable opportunity that had been placed in our laps – downtime, a slower pace, real presence with family members, and an opportunity to fix some things (a few doorknobs and a few relationships). I had longed for a time like this in my soul but kept pushing it down since I had grown weary trying to create more chances for quality time (I’m sure others can relate). Quality time not competing with our over-scheduled life was a dream until our entire schedule was…well, removed.

So what was our family going to do with this blessing of time that had been gifted to us in the midst of an unthinkable pandemic? My husband and I both knew it would be tragic to let auto pilot take over and not steer this time where we wanted it to go..talking, listening, teaching, doing, being. This gift of time was too huge for us to just float around taking in the squirrel and bird activity outside our window (though we have enjoyed doing that, and it’s on our list of “game changers”)!

Ephesians 5:14 came to mind, “Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.” So we said “yes,” we want this to be a time of showing up and growing in our life together, and “no,” we don’t want this to be like a time of death, a time of absence and regression while we should be representing Christ. We also knew it was our job to set the tone for our children, and we needed to keep our spirits up to do this…

Here’s what the slow-down invited us to do – we just had to show up:

Our “game-changers”

1. Deeper conversations with our children – especially with freedom to talk about what they had personally lost due to the Covid shut-down without judgmental responses (we knew it was important that we set good examples in our reactions to the current adversities), listening without always sharing opinions, spending time not always having to teach a lesson, UNRUSHED general conversations, and just hanging out and laughing a bit more (thank you God!)
2. Intentional instruction in areas that we felt we had neglected with our children (and our children are close to leaving the nest) – As a mom, I have spent too much time beating myself up over things I felt I had missed teaching my kids well. So I thank God for giving me this time to re-address some things in areas like cooking, home clean-up, personal finance skills (that’s a big one!), career investigation, and relationships. My husband has been instructing on some home repairs with our boys, which is great.
3. More time with OUR CREATOR – God, the creator of the universe and each one of us, who is allowing a pandemic right now. My husband and I have been more scheduled with our morning Bible study time (Walking With Waino is great), and our family is doing online worship services together each Sunday and enjoying some of the live FCA Huddles during the week. Also, we’re doing a family devotional time one night per week, where our kids share something God has spoken to them through scripture or Christian material (I have been wanting to do this for years…and it took a pandemic). We have a job to disciple our kids, and we don’t want to let God down.
4. Enjoying nature and hobbies together – watching the silly activity of the community of squirrels in our backyard, including the rare blonde squirrel that showed up right after we started staying at home, lots of turkey hunting locally with the family, a building project in the garage, landscaping, cooking, and a FAMILY ART PROJECT (it’s true).
5. Intentional rest – not just rest by default when we’re done with all we’re doing, but rest as a gift, understanding that God desires us to rest as provided for us in a Sabbath – his GIFT OF REST! I don’t know if we’ve ever been so rested.
6. Great “be time” – we are just being together doing home workouts in our “garage gym”, watching movies, online dance lessons with my hubby (not kidding), just hangin’! “Be time” happens when there is margin in your schedule that provides un-rushed time together AND when you are not distracted by a list of other things that aim to pull your attention away. “Be time” is how we heal each other – just what a family is supposed to do.

In his booklet Tyranny of the Urgent, Charles E. Hummel reminds us that “unfinished tasks…haunt quiet moments.” I’m amazed to be in a time where most of my urgent has been removed, and I’m getting the chance to un-haunt my quiet moments by addressing some unfinished tasks God had placed on my heart. I want to honor this time that was supposed to hold pinnacle moments for us by using it to connect the heart-strings of my family, hopefully touching their hearts for eternity.

How are your quiet moments going? Has God placed some things on your heart, too?

“If the Christian is too busy to stop, take spiritual inventory, and receive his assignments from God, he becomes a slave to the tyranny of the urgent. He may work day and night to achieve much that seems significant to himself and others, but he will not finish the work GOD has for him to do.” Charles E. Hummel