Like almost every mom of school-aged children in America, I spent much of July tossing and turning at night about education alternatives for my children this fall. Throughout my painful decision-making process, one constant refrain kept escaping my lips: I just want things to go back to normal!
I wanted normal friendships, normal school, normal work . . . you’d almost think to hear me whine that my “normal life” was almost perfect.
But here’s the thing: normal life wasn’t “almost perfect.” Back in February when I was living my “normal life,” I had a lot of complaints I prayed about.
Surprise!
God has used this “not normal” time to answer a lot of my pre-pandemic prayers.
It’s hard to admit on days that I want to wallow in self-pity, but it seems a deviation from normal was just what I needed.
On a broader scale, I also see societal changes happening that I have long prayed for.
My social media feed and the news reports on these topics look bleak, but I can’t help but hope that some of the changes that are taking place right now will ultimately be good for families, good for working mothers, and good for racial justice and reconciliation. We may slip backwards in these areas before we go forward, but my eye is on the potential for the future.
I hope the painful process we are going through now will ultimately pave the way for something better than our pre-pandemic gripes. But I think to get there, we have to be honest that pre-pandemic life wasn’t perfect and be prepared to “break up” with some of the norms of our past. If we’ve been praying for and earnestly seeking change, we have to loosen our grip on yesterday’s normal.
We have to break up.
Breaking up is never easy, so I would encourage you to find some ways to engage in self-care this fall. Additionally, I would encourage you to be generous in the grace department: generous to others, and generous to yourself. We’re all doing things we’ve never done before, and we’re bound to make mistakes.
I’m cheering you on from my corner of the world and wishing you the best. I hope one day when we emerge from this collective trial, we’ll find we’ve moved toward something better than the normal of our past.
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