A scant six weeks into the Covid-19 pandemic, I discovered that maybe quarantining doesn't bring out the best in everyone. Whenever my kids are misbehaving, saying cusses or using potty humor or suggesting their Christian private school sing 99 bottles of beer on the wall, I look at Joel and say, “Those are your kids. My kids pray without ceasing and sing hymns quietly.”
But what about when it is the mama who isn’t at her best? The kiddos don’t really have the option of not claiming their parents before the onset of legal adulthood. Never once have I heard any of my three children say, “You’re not my mom! My mom doesn’t talk to me that way, she prays for me and only uses kind, encouraging words.”
Today was not my best parenting day. I think I woulda handled today a lot better if my kids had been better kids.So tonight after we kinda debriefed on why everyone had a rough day I commented, “I need everyone in this house-myself included-to wake up and be different people.”
Dear friends, John Wesley, my spiritual father and one of the founders of Methodist theology believed in the journey of Christian perfection (not being perfect, but being perfecTED in love of God, neighbor, and self). Sometimes he also called it sanctification-the process of being made holy. And so, I believe that tomorrow, we can all be made new. Oh, we’ll probably still be in our Covid state, for most of us that won’t have changed. We serve a God who can make all things new, even mamas who make mistakes. In Revelation 21:5 (NIV), there is this bold promise: "He who was seated on the throne said, "I am making everything new!" Then he said, "Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true."
But we do have the opportunity for newness of self, spirit, soul. So let’s claim that promise of hope today, shall we?
P.S. That fateful night in April of 2020 when I asked everyone to be a new person the next day, Tom told me he knew how he was going to be a different person. He told me tomorrow he was going to stop wearing clothes.
Written By: Christie Robbins