Freedom

I heard the school bells ring yesterday. I already miss my Grace family, but it gave me pause to think what I would "normally" be doing at 7:55 on a Wednesday. On Wednesdays, I had been watching my friend's girls. We would form a little parade, 9 kids and me, walking through our backyard, across the parking lot and into the school building (stopping to high-five Mr. Hurley and Vicar Walsh on the way in, of course).

This new way of life isn't easy on any of us. Some of us are working twice as hard now, trying to get our normal jobs done and be a teacher for our kids. Some of us are lonely without our usual daily interactions in society. Some of us have to find child for our kids because we are still working outside of our homes. Some of us are missing income and don't know how we are going to make ends meet. Some of us are separated from loved ones at a time when they most need us. All of us have given up something.

I am tempted to be angry. I want to see my piano students. I want my kids to be able to play with their friends. I want to be able to visit my family.

Tonight as I snuggled my baby back to sleep, I remembered a conversation I had with my mom the week before this all started. I was complaining that Gideon only napped in his car seat. He was in it more than not during the day. Now, it's been a week since he's been in it. I have my kids home with me everyday (even if it means a messy living room). We have amazing technology in place so my kids can keep on learning and I can see my family, even though they live all across the country.

Focusing on these amazing blessings helps me. But what gives me peace the most is knowing that God is still God. We just celebrated the amazing freedom we have from sin, from sickness, from worry. That freedom comes from Jesus dying and rising for us.

Maybe I have to give up some of my freedoms right now. But the freedom that truly matters is mine, and nothing here on this earth can change that.