Sharing the Load

Can one be a "control freak" and have complete and utter faith in God at the same time? Absolutely yes!

My kids have been essentially sequestered since March 2020. They successfully completed Kindergarten, Third grade and Sixth grade online and earned very high grades, all while adjusting to the new way of learning. They have not been able to do their competitive soccer, or swim classes since last year either, and because they are amazing human beings, they haven't complained. I do believe that it is also because Randy and I have never hidden the reality of the world from them. They have seen me come home and undress in the garage in order to keep them safe. They have complied with not hugging me until I got out of the shower even when all they want to do is hold onto me after I return from my long shifts. They know what I do and are aware of the devastation this pandemic has caused, including to members of our own families. They have stayed vigilant with Randy and me on mask wearing and will often ask us about the vaccination status of someone we allow in the house before we get to debrief them. Before the Delta variant butted in, they were finally able to spend prolonged time with aunts and cousins and grandparents unmasked because they were all vaccinated and taking precautions. Recently, we had to go back into a more restricted interaction with extended family as my kids are too young to be vaccinated and the Delta variant is infecting vaccinated and unvaccinated people alike. While vaccinated people are only having mild illness (yay for science!), those still unvaccinated are being hit hard, and children are especially prone to severe illness from this variant.

What bad timing. Just when we want to gather more before we move, we have to stay disciplined. Randy and I have felt as though we have been running a marathon ever since we decided to make this huge move in August of last year. Our family has made the sacrifices necessary to be safe and stay unscathed during this pandemic and the last thing we want to do is not get to cross the finish line because we failed our pretravel COVID testing, not to mention the fact that we don't want our precious children to succumb to this virus.

Since we can no longer stay in our house as all of our belongings are either now on the container or in a pile ready to sell, a couple days ago, we took our bags to my dad's house. Him and my stepmother were gracious and understanding of our concerns and patiently answered all of the prying safety questions that I had for them so that we were comfortable having our kids in a new environment staying amongst people other than their parents for the first time since the pandemic hit. The first night, we had to reassure them that it was OK to remove their masks and we reminded them that we had done our due diligence and so had their grandparents. My kids do not live in fear, but with a clear awareness of the world around them that I know will continue to keep them safe and successful as they go through life.

Yesterday my daughter, who will be NINE years old tomorrow, expressed that she was a bit worried about some things like our safety at Papa's house and the flight etc. I told her that it was OK to worry. Walking around with no regard for the real dangers around will not protect you, but I discussed with her the balance that we all must find. That sweet spot in the scale where due diligence and preparation, discipline and purposeful action, is met by faith, trust and the knowledge that God has us in His hands. Nothing is ever fully or solely on our shoulders. I needed to be reminded of that myself.

Many people don't understand how scientists could be Christian, but I venture to ask, how could they not be? The wonders of the world are too remarkable to look at and not see miracles and magic. The saying "God helps those who help themselves" is a perfect summation, in my mind, of how passively sitting around without doing all that must be done to make a dream or a goal come to fruition is not what God wants us to do when we say that we are trusting in Him to give us the desires of our heart. We have to do our part.

Having Faith in God for safe keeping doesn't mean engaging in mass gatherings, not wearing a mask and hoping for the best. It means, using the knowledge he has blessed us with of the world that He has created and being safe and considerate of others then relying on Him to do the rest.

I have faith that we will finish this marathon successfully, not only because I know that we have God's blessing, but because we have done our part to make it happen, and both things are important. At the end of the day, when stress creeps in and we worry about whether we will be OK, it definitely helps to know that this is not only dependent on us.

God has our backs!!!