7 Ways to Thrive in Pandemic Times
#5 – Identify Your Support Community
I sat down at the kitchen table to write a note to a dear friend in South Carolina. I wrote Ellen thanking her for being a Your Refreshed Life Partner, giving monthly so that you who are reading this can receive monthly newsletters, weekly blogs, listen to podcasts and hear the Your Refreshed Life radio program with those in 91 countries. Ellen and her husband Larry are a loving and generous couple and represent #5 in our series perfectly.
We’ve looked at the first 4 steps to thrive rather than merely survive the Pandemic:
#1. Rely on God.
#2. Choose Positive Grief.
#3. Assess Your Situation.
#4. What’s in Your Hand?
Here is the next.
#5. Identify Your Support Community- In talking with my daughter last week, I asked her how and what she was doing now that her job as an international tour guide was eliminated due to COVID. She shared some projects she is working on as she continues to “figure it out” concerning employment and future direction. She admitted she has not traveled anywhere in 6 months, but does have several friends with whom she goes biking, hiking, and walking. She said, “Mom, that’s why I live here. I have a supportive community who is here for me in difficult times.”
My daughter recognizes the importance of community when the going gets tough. I specifically mentioned Ellen and Larry previously because they demonstrated community to us at a critical time. They invited Reen and me to stay quarantined in the third floor of their home the week before we left South Carolina. Our condo was already emptied and Reen was too sick to travel. Was he ill with COVID? We really don’t know, but their hospitality will always be a cherished memory!
When times get rough we all have family to support and care for us whether we recognize it or not. We all have the Body of Jesus Christ Himself, as our eternal family and support community. Jesus shared His heart in one of the most meaningful passages in the Bible. He prayed, “Father, just as you are in Me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent Me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one. I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity, to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.” We are to be a community in Jesus. We are God’s family if we believe.
When was the last time you wrote a note, picked up the phone and called, or texted a friend to see how they are doing in these tough times? The encouragement of others is priceless. Reach out and touch someone today!
