My Meltdown
I hit the wall this week. I’ve been doing okay with staying home and life being crazy. I’ve continued to homeschool my kids each day. I’ve kept up with my writing goals and the work I need to accomplish. I kept telling myself, “It’s okay. We will get through this. It’s not much longer.” Then I saw that my part of the world is not going to open until June, and that’s when I lost it. That’s when I had a meltdown.
Suddenly, I didn’t feel like I could do one more day of this quarantine. I wanted everything back to normal like right now! I felt like I was going to go insane!
I spent about three days in this state, totally discouraged, frustrated, at the end of my rope. I didn’t feel like homeschooling or doing my work, I was frustrated with my kids, and felt overwhelmed with life. I kept asking God to help me snap out of it. I finally made myself sit down and think about what was really bothering me and making me so frustrated. I finally was able to pin it down. It was the fact that I didn’t see an end in sight.
Choosing to Focus On Today and Avoid the Meltdown
God brought to mind a lesson I thought I learned about two years ago that I needed to be reminded of again. I needed to be reminded to just take it one day at a time. Just focus on what I need to do today to get through. If I would have remembered that, I probably could have avoided my three-day meltdown. Once I let that thought take root, I finally had peace for the first time in three days. God calmed my heart. I focused on what I needed to do that day and let everything else go.
I didn’t think about the beach trip that we missed because of the Coronavirus. I chose not to think about the fact that I couldn’t be in Illinois helping my sister and her family pack so they could move to Kentucky. I decided not to try to figure out when and how we would reschedule our trip to see my family in Colorado. I pushed thoughts away from trying to figure out when we would be able to have church again, when I would be able to go to Barnes and Noble or the library or the park again, and took a deep breath and just focused on today. Because something I learned but had to remind myself of again is that in the midst of a difficult time, the best thing I can do is focus on what I need to do to get through today.
Our Season of Difficulty
About two years ago, God took our family through a difficult season. You can read more about our story in a post I wrote- 5 Ways to Move Forward After a Difficult Season. Matt and I have spent a lot of time talking about what God took us through. We think it’s not a coincidence that God took us through a season of testing and great financial difficulty about two years before Coronavirus would hit. God knew our friends and family and those we minister to would be hit with financial difficulty, job loss, layoffs, reduced pay, frustration, fear of the unknown, and more.
I read a verse in my morning time this week that I feel like sums up where I am at personally after that difficult time in our lives.
As you, God, gently and powerfully put me back on my feet. Psalm 86:17 MSG
I have quickly fallen in love with this verse. I feel like He has gently but powerfully placed me back on my feet. I’ve come through the other side and can offer help and encouragement to those who are in a difficult season right now.
5 Reminders to Make It Through a Difficult Time
When I look back on that time in my life, I think about these five things that helped me to make it through. I needed to be reminded of them again this week.
- Just take it one day at a time. Don’t look at tomorrow, next week, or next month. Just focus on making it through today.
- Don’t make any big decisions right now. Now is not the time to make major life decisions.
- Keep up with your morning time routine, or start one if you don’t already have one. Read my 3 Quick Tips for a Successful Morning Time to get started with a morning time routine. My morning time routine of Bible reading, praying, and journaling was the single most important thing that kept me sane during that difficult time in my life.
- Hold on to hope. Keep believing that God will get you through this time because He will. If you lose hope, you lose your ability to make it through.
- Write down at least one thing every morning that you are grateful for. During hard times, we lose focus and our bearings on reality. Writing down something every day that is good in our lives is a way to keep us grounded.
The Danger of Walking Away from God
“It is when life is just happening that we are in danger of walking away from God.” from my book, The Hidden Pain: When You Fear God is No Longer Blessing Your Life
If we’re not careful, it’s times like these that we can find ourselves drifting away from God. We’re not attending church, we can’t meet with our small group, our routine is off because we are working from home… If we’re not careful, we will walk away from this time finding ourselves far away from God.
To keep that from happening, we have to choose to stay faithful today. We just have to make it through one more day. Soon enough, we will be on the other side looking back. We will see how God carried us through this difficult season and we stayed faithful during the midst of it.
Resources for Encouragement
If you are looking for a book to read while stuck at home or need a journal for your morning time routine, check out my Amazon Author page for my books and journals.
Being at home and separate from family and friends can make even the most non-people person become lonely and discouraged. Matt and I have created a free ten-day devotional called You Are Not Alone: Discovering the Presence of God in the Promises of God. You can get a copy of this free devotional HERE.