by Rob Furlong
Mother’s Day, as with many other celebrations in 2020, will be very different to previous years!
With that in mind, and given our current social restrictions, how can you all enjoy the day together, without driving each other crazy?
Here are some suggestions:
Take a walk in the park! Unlike some countries which are in total lock down, we are fortunate to still be able to enjoy our parks and other areas as families. Observe the social distancing rules if others are around, but there is no need to stay completely cooped up in the house all day! A short walk in the park, taking in the beauty of creation revives the soul. (Mums – because it is your day, ask the family to let you take a walk on your own!)
Make the most of technology. Many of you will have family members in different parts of the country or state. This does not mean you cannot enjoy each other’s company! Set up a FaceTime or Messenger chat while you are all around the dinner table, wherever you are. We did this over the recent Easter holiday period with our own family. Despite being in different parts of Australia we were still able to hold our family tradition of telling the Easter story and rolling our Easter eggs off the table! Technology is another blessing – all it requires is that we be a little creative with it.
A word to Dads and kids – give Mum the whole day off – really! Everyone is working hard in this interesting time we find ourselves in, but chances are that Mums are carrying a greater than usual load. For example, most of them didn’t expect to become school teachers overnight!
I once heard a lady describe Mother’s Day quite cynically as being a day “Where they give you a thank you card and then pack you off back to the kitchen!” Don’t let your wife or mum feel like that this Mother’s Day.
Give her a real break. Breakfast in bed. Cook lunch. Do the clean-up afterwards. In short, spoil her for the whole day! And if youreally want to make an impact, make this a regular part of your life, not just on Mother’s Day!
Live in the present. In other words, don’t mope about what might have been – enjoy the day you have been given and mine the blessings from it!
The Apostle Paul found himself in the middle of extremely trying circumstances, chained to a Roman soldier while under house arrest in Rome, yet he was still able to share the Gospel effectively and in ways he never imagined; write letters to a number of churches and above all, know the deep joy of Jesus in spite of it all.
Discover the joy in the day, indeed, in every day, and receive the gifts God has for you. The current state of the world can leave us feeling “chained” to our homes and circumstances, but we need not be!
I am discovering more and more that joyful people are big picture people who can look beyond their circumstances to see what God is doing and who are able to live in the present, enjoying God, His presence and the people He has placed in their lives.
Quite simply, your enjoyment of Mother’s Day this year will come down to the choice you make – will you bemoan the fact it is not like other years or will you see the potential in it? One author describes this type of choice for us:
“Happy people do not depend on excitement and ‘fun’ supplied by externals. They enjoy the…simple things of life…they waste no time…(yearning) for yesterday or tomorrow. They savour the moment, glad to be alive, enjoying…their families, the good things around them. They are adaptable (and) adjust to the changes in their times.”
Make Mother’s Day 2020 your best one yet!
Challenge Literature Fellowship - Australia