I have been called a social butterfly all my life. I love to be around people, hug my friends and spend quality time chatting with a friend over a cup of coffee, a bible study, or a meal. I love our zoom meetings but I truly miss, no, I NEED “real” contact with others. Life works best for me when I can be out and about enjoying time with family and friends.

My husband, on the other hand, prefers to sit home and spend time checking his email and sports scores. He loves being in our office at home and being able to work. He tells everyone how much he “loves working from home”. He can eat lunch when he chooses, read sports headlines in between phone calls, classes and emails. He feels as though this is the best of both worlds, work and home.

I, on the other hand, have had more than my “fill” of our quality daytime hours together. When I am studying for a devotional or writing a sermon or working on another aspect of ministry, he forgets that I too am working. He will walk out of the office and start talking to me. I will admit that sometimes I “huff” at him and point to the headphones on my ears. Sometimes I stare at him with my ”can’t you see I am working” look. He will grab a snack and walk back into the office.   

This “stay at home order” is tough on both of us. It was even tough on our dogs at first. They were out of their routines. I was reviewing a few blogs that I had written a few years ago when I realized I was doing the same thing now that I did 5 years ago. I was working on MY agenda and not allowing God to direct it for His purpose. I was so busy grumbling about how much more work I have had, how my husband is disrupting my schedule because of this “COVID pandemic”, that I have forgotten to take time to just breathe and follow God’s lead for my day.

I am working on restructuring my thought process. Instead of seeing the daily interruptions by Tom, the dogs, and the multitude of phone calls, as limitations of being “quarantined at home”, I am working on shifting my thoughts to finding this as a time of “spiritual sequestering”. A time to sit back and seek God more closely.  Finding the time to just be still and know that God is still on the throne and He has a purpose for allowing me to shift from the busyness of life to seek a time to sit in His lap and thrive in the presence of God and allow Him to permeate and refresh my soul.

How are you handling this time? Are you finding our “quarantine” aka “social distancing” as a time of frustration, fear, anger, and inconvenience or are you seeking time with your Heavenly Father to hear just how much he treasures time with you? Can you restructure your mindset to seek a “spiritual sequestering” to just be in the presence of God? Only God can provide you the peace, strength, comfort, and safety that this time in our world cannot. God treasures the time He has together with you.

Psalm 18:2 The Lord is my solid rock, my fortress, my rescuer. My God is my rock— I take refuge in him! — he’s my shield, my salvation’s strength, my place of safety.