The Other Side of COVID: Don't Lose What We Found Last Year
Many families discovered, or rediscovered, new habits and rhythms in 2020. While the COVID pandemic proved challenging, the stay-at-home restrictions did provide unexpected blessings.
Families enjoyed more time together.
Families enjoyed simplicity and solitude as calendars were cleared.
Families enjoyed meals together at home around the dinner table.
Families enjoyed prayer and family worship more consistently.
One survey revealed that the frequency of family meals increased for 80% of families in 2020, while family worship was more consistent for nearly half of those surveyed.
These are habits and rhythms that we should seek to preserve.
Schools and businesses are open again. Calendars are full again, and if we are not intentional to continue to cultivate simplicity, solitude, family time, and family worship, then we are in danger of reverting to our previous busy schedules that kept us from these beautiful habits.
As J.D. Greear wrote, “You need to take control of your calendar, because if you don’t, someone will take control of it for you.”
In Luke 10:38-42, we see Jesus at the house of Mary and Martha. Martha was “distracted with much serving,” while Mary “sat at the Lord’s feet and listened” to Jesus. In this story, we are reminded of the importance of resting in the presence of the Lord. For in the Lord’s “presence there is fullness of joy” (Psalm 16:11).
Can we continue to rest in the Lord even when we are not mandated to stay at home?
The stay-at-home restrictions of 2020 forced many of us into a less-busy season, creating newfound space to rest at the feet of Jesus. This is a discipline and a blessing that we should long to keep in our homes today.
As we seek to cultivate simplicity and solitude, protecting margin in our weeks for family time, family meals, and family worship, let me offer three questions for your family to consider:
What are our family’s top three priorities that we must make time for each week?
In what ways are we currently wasting time that could be better spent together?
When are the best opportunities for us to enjoy a meal and family worship together each week?
I am thankful that we are able to gather with friends again. I am thankful that we are able to worship with our church family in person again. I am thankful that we can serve together once more. I pray that we pursue these gatherings and opportunities.
And yet, in the midst of it all, I pray that we stop to consider how to continue to enjoy simplicity and solitude.
How tragic it would be to find ourselves on the other side of this pandemic, right back where we started: too busy for family time, too busy for family worship, too busy for family meals, and unable to enjoy the blessings of simplicity and solitude!
Trevin Wax once wrote, “I fear that we have become dependent upon entertainment and constant activity. This dependence (now made even more possible by technology) enslaves us to doing whatever seems fun for the moment. Meanwhile, we miss out on relationships that will last for a lifetime.”
As activities ramp up again, let us seek ways to invest in family relationships. Let us eat together, pray together, laugh together, and worship together. Let us sit at the feet of Jesus together.
Jonathan Williams, Ph.D. (Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary) is the founder and Executive Director of Gospel Family Ministries and the author of Gospel Family: Cultivating Family Discipleship, Family Worship, and Family Missions. He lives in Houston, TX with his wife and three children.