3 Simple Things You Can Do for Your Family During a Crisis

This entire year I’ve been writing about Creating a Beautiful Family Culture. Well, it’s no longer “dream and scheme” time. It’s GO TIME. 

Right now, with a world-wide crisis, you are being presented with a massive opportunity to dive deeper into Family Living. 

You can do it. You, as the parent, have INCREDIBLE power in your home right now.
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You already know that much is changing in our world with the spreading of COVID-19 or The Coronavirus. 

• Many churches have temporarily shut their doors. 
• Many schools are closed for the remainder of the year. 
• Many big events, including the NCAA tournament, were cancelled. 
• Many people, including my husband, are working from home. 
• Restaurants are closing or limiting access to sit-down options.
• Retirement Homes are on lock-down, with no visitors in or out. 
• Many work-out gyms are closed.
• Some countries are closing their borders.
• There is a shortage of toilet paper and baby wipes. 
  

 Yes, it might be easy to go into Freak Out Mode. 

I know. I live in Wichita, Kansas. The governor announced this week that all Kansas schools, grades K-12, would be closed for the remainder of the year.

As that thought settled, I wanted to just curl up and lament about all of the seniors that would not get their “lasts” and all of the stunning track stars that would not get to compete. My heart hurt for them. 

Now, on an intellectual level I knew that me being curled up in the fetal position would not FIX anything. However, on an emotional level, I needed to mourn. So I gave myself permission to get sad and feel all of the emotions that I was feeling. 

Then I prayed for them. I asked God to bless them and give them comfort. I then asked for the gift of resiliency and patience. For them and for me. 

I then sat back and asked for some perspective and I immediately thought of this prayer, written by Fr. Ken Untener in 1979, for a Mass for deceased priests. 

It is often associated with Saint Oscar Romero, who was assassinated in 1980 while celebrating Mass in El Salvador. Archbishop Romero was a VOICE for his people, helping, guiding and loving them in the midst of repression.  

I love this prayer because it reminds me that I’m not in charge. 

A Future Not Our Own

It helps now and then to step back and take a long view.
The Kingdom is not only beyond our efforts, it is beyond our vision.

We accomplish in our lifetime only a fraction of the magnificent enterprise that is God's work.
Nothing we do is complete, which is another way of saying that the kingdom always lies beyond us.
No statement says all that could be said.
No prayer fully expresses our faith. No confession brings perfection, no pastoral visit brings wholeness.
No program accomplishes the Church's mission.
No set of goals and objectives include everything.

This is what we are about. We plant the seeds that one day will grow. 
We water the seeds already planted knowing that they hold future promise.
We lay foundations that will need further development.
We provide yeast that produces effects far beyond our capabilities.

We cannot do everything, and there is a sense of liberation in realizing this.
This enables us to do something, and to do it very well. 
It may be incomplete, but it is a beginning, a step along the way, an opportunity for the Lord's grace to enter and do the rest.
We may never see the end results, but that is the difference between the master builder and the worker.

We are workers, not master builders, ministers, not messiahs. 
We are prophets of a future not our own.

You are NOT the master builder. You, like me, are a worker. There is some relief in that. We cannot do everything. We aren’t expected to do everything.

Yet there are things that we can and must do. As parents, our “busy” has just been taken away from us. We have the fascinating power to truly make a remarkable, memorable difference in the lives of our children at this unique time in history. 

Let’s approach this crisis as a rich opportunity for grace and growth. 

Now is the time to be daring and courageous. Be confident. You have everything  you need to make your child’s world a better place. 

Knowing that you have been bombarded with a lot of information in the past week, I am going to share three simple things you can do for your family during a crisis: 

1. Take care of yourself. Let’s be honest about these days. There is a lot of unknown. If we want to be a source of energy and inspiration for our children, then we need to develop a good self-care routine. 
   1. To help you develop your own, go to our free Resource Library and get the resource, “Self Care Routine.” 
2. Talk to your children about how they are feeling. When we talk about our emotions, connections are made. Stress can be alleviated. 
   1. To help you understand emotional connection, (and access a list of emotions to use with your kids) read this post: One Simple Way to Create Connection. 
3. Pray together.
   1. Kids need an anchor when the seas are turbulent. Create a daily ritual of family prayer. If you’ve never prayed together before, that’s cool. Just huddle together and voice your concerns/prayers/joys/thoughts to God. Let everyone speak (if they are comfortable doing so). Wrap it up with a simple, “Lord, hear our prayer.” Your kids will look forward to that time of togetherness.
      1. Write it down (time and place) so you’ll actually do it! For example: Prayer time: Every night at 8 p.m. Living Room.
   2. If your family is Catholic, get out the big guns. Pray the daily Rosary or Chaplet of Divine Mercy.  

This is what we are about. We plant the seeds that one day will grow. 
We water the seeds already planted knowing that they hold future promise.
We lay foundations that will need further development.
We provide yeast that produces effects far beyond our capabilities.

We cannot do everything, and there is a sense of liberation in realizing this.
This enables us to do something, and to do it very well. 
It may be incomplete, but it is a beginning, a step along the way, an opportunity for the Lord's grace to enter and do the rest.
We may never see the end results, but that is the difference between the master builder and the worker.

We are workers, not master builders, ministers, not messiahs. 
We are prophets of a future not our own.

We can do this! I believe in us!
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P.S. Find the Self-Care Routine in our free Resource Library.