starting small
I just got off the phone with my mum so I am pretty stoked typing this out. Mother’s are exceptional beings and the older I get, the more I realize how much respect and appreciation should be accorded to women. I hope you take this day to remember and celebrate your mum or mothers around you today.
I have been contemplating the roll out of vaccines and the possibility for businesses and institutions to open up again. And I must confess, I don’t know how I feel about the potential for another season of change. We had a hard time adjusting to the changes brought on by the pandemic and as much as things opening up is positive, it is also a bit scary too.
Motherhood can teach us how to navigate this. Mothers go through nine months of changes. Physical, emotional, mental and social changes occur for women once they are expecting. Pregnancies don’t start showing immediately, parenting and handling teenage mood-swings doesn’t happen at the snap of the finger. Oh no, it’s gradual. Mothers have spent time with their children, ideally in prayer, and learning from others and that’s how they learn to nurture. It doesn’t all happen immediately sometimes it takes time.
How can we apply this to the current potential for reopening?
Take small steps: start taking small steps to get back in the grind of being out and about. Start small but start all the same. I plan to go into the office once a month to gradually get back in the groove of working in-person. Churches are open and some have added programs on. Attend something in-person once a month/week. Start small but start all the same. You wouldn’t be here if a mum didn’t go through pregnancy, delivery and raising you, she started small and did the work and here you are!
Have faith: Yes, there are variants and things may not open up as we anticipate them to but have faith because even if things don’t open up this year, they will next year. Mothers have had faith that they will deliver safely, that their decisions will keep you healthy and safe and it has worked so far. I know my mother had incidents that would have gone south if she didn’t have faith or hadn’t listened to the Holy Spirit. God is willing and ready to direct you, if you let him. If you don’t know how to start small and take more steps towards more exposure, believe in God’s direction and He will take care of you. The Holy Spirit is ready to speak, will you listen?
If mothers did not have the strength to let you explore as a child, you would have been tied to a bed or not allowed out of your house growing up. We will need strength to step out in faith in the coming months to resume church attendance, visitations, and explorations. I say “start small”. In essence
Zecheriah 4:10a
Do not despise these small beginnings, for the Lord rejoices to see the work begin…