Yesterday was supposed to be opening day for baseball. For me, it wasn’t a big deal at all that we missed it but when you have a baseball loving family, you could see they missed the joy the game brings them. So Stephen and the boys created their own opening day in our front yard⚾️
And this friends is the dance I have experienced since my walk with cancer, and that many of us are in right now.
There are people struggling right now, literally for their lives, there are people who are putting their lives on the line to save others. This is the below the surface reality that happens daily that has now risen to the surface in society. The world now sees the struggle is real. And it is in this place where we gain perspective and see clearly who and what matters most in life.
Yet my kids aren’t fully there. Yes, we have honest conversations with them to inform them, age appropriately, the reality of what is happening, just as we did with cancer. And yes, we are doing what we can from where we are to help. We are staying home, sending money, making masks, sending meals, praying, etc. to be a part of the healing. I want them to know there is real stuff happening and we can do what we can as a family to help. Yet I also am trying to meet them as the 14, 12 and 7 year olds they are.
Yes, I want this experience to open their eyes and give them better perspective in life, yet I need to trust that that will come in God’s time.
For now, I need to come beside them, loving them where they are, and understand things like missing baseball matters to them.
When I watched the world through their eyes as they played yesterday, they showed me there is still laughter and joy to be had in this day, even in the midst of this struggle.
I share this with you today because I know I am not alone with that tug of war in our hearts between keeping perspective on what’s really happening and living life beside our families while we are at home.
I invite you to join me to...
pause. breathe. pray.
May God open our eyes to the truth of what is really happening yet not lose sight that our kids, and others, may not have that perspective we have, and to meet them where they are.
May we do what we can from where we are, even if it means watching your kids play baseball in the yard, and dedicating each throw and hit as a prayer for the sick, for the doctors, the nurses, the volunteers, the scientists, the mailmen, the helpers, etc.
Stay well and God bless💕🙏💕
With love and hope,
Shawn
“Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.”
- Ephesians 4:2