You Were Made for This
058: How a Crisis Can Bring Out the Best in Us
Welcome to today’s episode where today we look at several examples of how people are reaching out and caring for each other during our present day global health crisis. Hopefully these stories will inspire you to do the same.
I mentioned in last week’s episode, no.57, that a crisis like we are experiencing now in the spring of 2020 creates opportunities for us to find goodness in our relationships with people.
I have also found some relational goodness in humor in these difficult times.
Here are several examples:
Facebook post 1:
Until further notice: No one can stop by unannounced. We ain’t sick, we just don’t trust you around our toilet paper.
Facebook post 2:
“Kiss Me - I’m Irish” green sign written in some sort of a Gaelic font with the obligatory shamrock. The “Kiss Me” is crossed out with a big black X, and above it is its substitute: “Wave to me from at least 6 feet away.”
Toilet paper evangelism. We delivered rolls to the college kids next-door :) ~ from webinar listener
I also found a Facebook post from a 5th grade teacher, with 2 small children at home. Like most teachers these days, she’s at home because of the coronavirus pandemic. She recently posted the following on Facebook:
“While you are homeschooling/remotely/digitally educating your kids, if you need assistance with understanding something that has been assigned for your child, or if you need more resources, just give me a shout. (Teachers copy, edit and paste!)”
So thank you for that, Emily D., 5th grade teacher and mother of 2.
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KIDS
Found this on GMCN, (Global Missionary Care Network) for Missionaries
“Welcome to At Home Together. This site has been put together to help support families who find themselves having to temporarily do all of life at home due to the current situation. People are sharing resources in places like facebook but they tend to get lost in the feed. The aim with this blog is to catch resources and put them in one place.
If you know any families who are having to do life at home with children out of school please share this with them.”
I’ll have a link to this web site in the show notes as “At Home Together.”
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KIDS
A YouTube video to help children understand the coronavirus and what they can do. I’ll have it the show notes as “The Yucky Bug”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZD9KNhmOCV4&feature=youtu.be&fbclid=IwAR1FKeumD9SXVua2o7uqsotroOBftjNeoxl0y4yBAZ2xoNwqaVN1uTHYqEU
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KIDS
Facebook post
“Most young kids will remember how their family home felt during the coronavirus panic more than anything specific about the virus. Our kids are watching us and learning about how to respond to stress and uncertainty. Let’s wire our kids for resilience, not panic”
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KIDS
Here’s a creative action a grandmother took recently. I found out about it in the chat section of a webinar I was listening to:
“I have to say that I can finally say that I “created” a closed FB group for my granddaughters and young neighbors and I read books to them from the children’s books I have on hand. It seems to have been another tool in the toolbox parents of young parents. It’s called Nonni’s Reading Nook. 🙂 “ ~ Webinar listener
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If you forget everything else from today’s episode, here’s the one thing I hope you remember. Our show in a sentence
A crisis, whether it’s global, national, or on the street where we live, is a great opportunity to give people a picture of who Jesus is as we care and serve others.
Here’s what you can do in response to today’s show.
Ask God for wisdom for what you can do to care and serve others. Considering your God-given abilities, what do you think the Lord Jesus would want you to do in these trying times. Maybe it’s just to hunker down with your kids, and nothing else. Maybe it’s to reach out to others. Just ask him. He’ll show you.
You can also be on the look-out for other examples of relational goodness occurring around you. I love to hear about what you find. Feel free to send me an email to john@caringforothers.org, or share your thoughts in the “Leave a Reply” box at the bottom of the show notes
Closing
I hope your thinking was stimulated by today’s show, to both reflect and to act. So that you will find the joy God intends for you through your relationships. Because after all, You Were Made for This.
Now for Our Relationship Quote of the Week
Martin Luther lived through The Black Death plague, that killed an estimated 25 million people, which was one fourth to one third of the entire population of Europe. in 1527, he wrote these wise words that can help inform the way we approach things happening in our world right now...
“I shall ask God mercifully to protect us. Then I shall fumigate, help purify the air, administer medicine and take it. I shall avoid places and persons where my presence is not needed in order not to become contaminated and thus perchance inflict and pollute others and so cause their death as a result of my negligence. If God should wish to take me, he will surely find me and I have done what he has expected of me and so I am not responsible for either my own death or the death of others. If my neighbor needs me however I shall not avoid place or person but will go freely as stated above. See this is such a God-fearing faith because it is neither brash nor foolhardy and does not tempt God."
That’s all for today. See you next week. Bye for now.
Resources mentioned in today’s show
“The Yucky Bug”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZD9KNhmOCV4&feature=youtu.be&fbclid=IwAR1FKeumD9SXVua2o7uqsotroOBftjNeoxl0y4yBAZ2xoNwqaVN1uTHYqEU