What should you do during the Coronavirus? The short answers are at the bottom. Before that, though, let me tell you where I went very wrong this week.
I confess I need to do better.
This whole coronavirus quarantine, kill the curb, etcetera has us all a little crazy.
Not one of us reacts the same in any given situation. The Coronavirus is no exception. We all have different experiences, different views, different values, and different influences. We will never 100% agree with how anything is handled because we are all different.
And that’s ok.
When it’s not ok, is when we try to impose our measure on someone else.
I confess that I judged another this week for this very thing.
My family and I have been quarantining. We have not taken the children out. I haven’t seen my parents in months, haven’t seen friends in forever. Have not let our kids play with the neighborhood kids. My husband still works downtown Nashville, so he had been the only one going to get groceries. We were trying to do our part.
Now here in Tennessee, things are slowly starting to open. That is great! I am hopeful for the economy to get back into full swing.
As it’s been opening up, though, everyone has a different take on how it should look.
I do not have any problem going into public places such as restaurants, especially with outside seating. The public restrooms that I have been in since this whole virus hit have been the cleanest I have ever seen public restrooms! I have admittedly always been a bit of a germaphobe. I carry hand sanitizer and wipes where ever I go. So taking precautions is what I will continue to do only now it’s acceptable for me to wear a mask in some situations which I think is excellent.
So onto my confession.
I was meeting a leadership group that I haven’t met with since before all of this has started. The original plan was to meet at a place with outdoor dining. One person had a problem with the public eating and wanted it in their back yard. I wasn’t happy.
I swallowed what I wanted to say and said ok. I ended up running late with even more of a chip on my shoulder because I forgot this also meant I had to make myself a coffee to bring instead of ordering one AND I would not get breakfast out.
Petty – I know I am entirely trivial at this moment. I was in a petty mood. I was trying to also think about how much I could drink at this person’s house without having to use the restroom because private homes don’t have the same CDC requirements as public.
DO YOU SEE HOW DISCUSTINGLY PETTY I WAS BEING?
I was very dramatic in my mind.
I am not proud of how I was feeling.
I tried to pray away this feeling.
I prayed the whole drive over to this person’s house. I prayed for my heart to change.
Thankfully my heart was softened. I saw the fear in their eyes, and I knew that I was entirely in the wrong. Not one of us will feel the same about public situations for a long time.
I don’t want to get sick, or chance giving the virus to someone I love, but I am not fearful. Living life is the only way I know how to survive.
Later at the meeting in our conversation, when I found out they had been “socially distancing” at a pool earlier that week, I felt my judgment arise in me again, and thankfully I was able to squash that feeling quickly.
Did I agree with this person for thinking a pool was different than eating outside? No, I still don’t. But that is not the point. I do not have to agree. I do not have to like it.
If that is what makes their family feel better, than who am I to tell them its right or wrong? I am nobody. That’s right; I am not them; I’m not in their inner circle; it is not up to me to tell them where they should be comfortable.
Sometimes we all want people to be like us. We make decisions for ourselves, and our families that we believe are the best decisions. I think sometimes we humans forget that they are the best decisions for US. For ourselves or our family. That in no way means that it is the best decision for others.
We are all on a different path.
We are all called by God to LOVE one another. Not control our neighbor, LOVE our neighbor.
The sooner we learn this lesson, the better our life will be.
So the big takeaway from all of this? What should you do during the Coronavirus and the reopening of things?
EXTEND GRACE.
DO NOT JUDGE.
LOVE ONE ANOTHER.
REALIZE NO ONE WILL DO THIS PERFECTLY.
NOT LEADERSHIP OR CIVILIANS. NO ONE
LOVE ANOTHER THROUGH THE GOOD AND THE BAD.
With Joy & Love,
Jenny
