This year has been challenging, and it has been challenging for so many. Some have faced a virus that has taken lives. Others have been hit so hard by financial difficulties that they are losing or on the verge of losing all they spent years working to build.
My family faced Covid as one after the other were exposed. The range of severity went from children with no symptoms to ER visits and weeks of recovery. We were fortunate because there hasn’t been loss of life in our immediate family to this point.
And yet, I still feel that the extreme measures to contain the virus are a violation of basic rights and civil liberties. After all, if I can go to Walmart with a mask and see the workers not even wearing them correctly, touch items touched by a hundred others, and stand in a thirty minute line because the store only has one cashier open, I think I can go to church.
We have kept up with school even in the midst of quarantine and Covid exposure and illness because my daughter was one of the lucky ones that never experienced a symptom... despite sharing a room with an older sister that got very ill and taking care of me during my most challenging days with this illness. My thirteen year old is independent in most of her work. I like to be heavily involved in some subjects, but there is a difference between “needing” me and “benefitting” from working together.
Our finances have been equally challenged this year. We have had steady income, but it has been significantly reduced. I read that up to one-third of all Americans are facing eviction or foreclosure. We are not in that category, so I consider us blessed.
But it has changed some things in our home and education. I had to rework school when the budget became much more strict and I couldn’t afford to purchase what I thought we needed. The lines between want and need became much less blurred.
There was a saying that developed during The Great Depression that said, “Use it Up, Wear it Out, Make it do, Or do without!” This is our family right now. The expensive, full-color notebooking pages can be replaced with cheaper, black and white print-outs. We don’t need the best materials to get a quality, God-filled education. In fact, it might just contribute to creativity.
This isn’t the first time that I have had to evaluate what we are using and set priorities. When I had several students in my homeschool, similar choices had to be made. Over the years I had gotten comfortable with spending more. I had become complacent in our finances. Now I know that I wasn’t careful and it has caught up to me.
I steered away from a lot of consumable items in our homeschool, though we do have some. Those consumable items have now become a point of stress when the funds aren’t there to purchase the next level. The money to buy them at this time just isn’t there. And, after months and months of cut income, I don’t feel guilty about this. The reality for millions of Americans is much more dire, so I am thankful for what we have.
I have a library card, those non-consumable materials, and internet connection. Restructuring our school is not what I anticipated when I could confidently purchase needed items without a blink. And yet, restructuring is what needed to happen. Ironically, my daughter likes the simpler materials better.
I have learned that I had stopped being a good steward of what God has given us. I am thankful for that lesson. Being sick and having our finances significantly impacted has been tough, but it reminded me of the lessons that I once knew, but forgot in health and prosperity. God’s lessons are not just for a season, but a lifelong plan. It is in the healthy and prosperous times that we are store up for the other times.
This Thanksgiving looks different than previous years. We aren’t getting together with extended family. Our counties have been hit hard by Covid and those that haven’t been exposed don’t want to risk illness. I don’t blame them. I still get to gather with my children and grandchildren. I still get to enjoy my family, even if it is a bit less than normal. I will count my blessings, not focus on the trials.
Most see 2020 as the worst year. I agree it has been tough. I pray it might be looked at not as the worst year, but the year in which God taught the best, most life-changing lessons. I pray that we see what we took for granted in the past: gathering together with family, income we could count on, health, going to church, hanging out with friends, running our businesses. I pray that we learn that those things are blessings from God that we should cherish and never, ever, ever take them for granted again.
Count your blessings.
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